Name: David Marin
Previous title: Global head of government affairs, public policy and advocacy, Viatris
New title: President and CEO, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association
Marin will become president and chief executive of the PCMA, the main industry association for pharmacy benefit managers, effective Jan. 20, according to a Thursday release.
Marin, a former lobbyist and pharmaceutical executive, is stepping into the PCMA’s top role as the heat cranks up for its members — middlemen in the pharmaceutical supply chain increasingly blamed for contributing to runaway drug prices.
The PCMA spent some $17.5 million on lobbying in 2024 as lawmakers in Washington considered a string of PBM reform bills, none of which made it across the finish line. Still, top leaders in Congress plan to reintroduce a bipartisan package cracking down on PBMs, and the “Big Three” drug middlemen — Cigna’s Express Scripts, CVS’ Caremark and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx, all PCMA members — continue to catch flak from states and antitrust regulators.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to lead this exceptional organization at a critically important moment,” Marin said in a statement. “Policymakers at all levels are rightly focused on costs, affordability, and sustainability — for patients, employers, and health care systems overall. Our promise is to be a driver of that conversation in Washington and state capitals around the nation.”
Marin is replacing interim CEO Lucia Lebens, the PCMA’s chief government affairs officer. Lebens has run the lobby since late 2025, when the former chief executive JC Scott stepped down after seven years at the PCMA’s helm.
Previously, Marin ran government affairs and public policy at Viatris, a global drug company with $14.7 billion in annual sales.
Before that, the executive was managing principal at the Podesta Group, a D.C.-based lobbying firm. Marin departed the Podesta Group around the same time the lobby went defunct in late 2017 after being swept up in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
The PCMA also named Brendan Buck as the group’s chief communications officer. Buck comes to the PCMA from public affairs agency Seven Letter and spent more than a decade on Capitol Hill as a Republican communications advisor and press secretary.
Buck also worked as vice president of communications for top insurance lobby AHIP.
Last month, the PCMA also announced it had hired Sean Williams, a former lobbyist for the airline industry, as its senior vice president of state affairs starting in January. The PCMA also tapped a new board chair, Express Scripts’ top executive Adam Kautzner, in the fall.
