CT AG’s office prosecuting alleged widespread price-fixing of generic prescription drugs

Hartford Courant – Thursday, October 31, 2024

Two pharmaceutical companies will pay $49.1 million to resolve allegations of widespread price-fixing of generic prescription drugs in a settlement led by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, his office announced Thursday.

Tong reportedly led the coalition of 50 states and territories in the settlements with Heritage Pharmaceuticals and Apotex, which are accused of engaging in “widespread, long-running conspiracies to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to numerous generic prescription drugs.”

In addition to the monetary terms, the companies agreed to cooperate in multistate lawsuits against 30 corporations and 25 executives. The first of the suits is upcoming in Hartford, Tong’s office said in a release.

“Heritage and Apotex both participated in widespread conspiracies to jack up prices and block competition for generic prescription drugs. Their brazen collusion cost American families and our public healthcare programs millions of dollars. Both companies are now cooperating with our ongoing litigation, and we are very confident in our case heading toward our first trial in Connecticut,” Tong said.

The antitrust complaints date back to 2016, when then-Attorney General George Jepsen spearheaded the effort. Connecticut’s Assistant Attorney General Joseph Nielsen is now the lead attorney for the coalition of states and territories.

The original complaint included Heritage and 17 other corporations, two individuals, and 15 generic drugs, according to Tong’s office. Two former executives from Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Jeffery Glazer and Jason Malek, have since entered into settlement agreements and are cooperating. The second complaint, filed in 2019, includes Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 of the largest U.S. generic drug manufacturers, as well as 16 senior executives.

The newest complaint “focuses on 80 topical generic drugs that account for billions of dollars of sales in the United States and names 26 corporate defendants and 10 individual defendants,” the statement said. An additional six pharmaceutical executives have agreed to cooperate with the coalition’s cases.

According to Tong’s office, through a lengthy investigation, the coalition compiled more than 20 million documents, millions of phone call records and contact information for sales and pricing workers in the generics industry, and secured cooperation from several witnesses involved in the alleged conspiracies.

“Each complaint addresses a different set of drugs and defendants, and lays out an interconnected web of industry executives where these competitors met with each other during industry dinners, “girls nights out”, lunches, cocktail parties, golf outings and communicated via frequent telephone calls, emails and text messages that sowed the seeds for their illegal agreements,” the attorney general’s office statement said. “Throughout the complaints, defendants use terms like “fair share,” “playing nice in the sandbox,” and “responsible competitor” to describe how they unlawfully discouraged competition, raised prices and enforced an ingrained culture of collusion.”

The coalition includes Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Puerto Rico.

If you purchased a generic prescription drug manufactured by either Heritage or Apotex between 2010 and 2018, you may be eligible for compensation. To determine your eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182 (Toll-Free), email info@AGGenericDrugs.com or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.

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