Posts Tagged ‘Utah Attorney General’

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 13, 2019

UTAH JOINS LAWSUIT AGAINST TEVA PHARMACEUTICALS AND 18 GENERIC DRUG MAKERS IN CONSPIRACY TO FIX MARKET PRICING FOR DRUGS
AG Coalition Presents Hard Evidence Showing Multi-billion Dollar Fraud on Americans

SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes joined 44 states announcing a lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 of the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers alleging a broad conspiracy to artificially inflate and manipulate prices as well as reduce competition for more than 100 different generic drugs.

“The price fixing case against these pharmaceutical companies has been building for years, and it’s time we hold them accountable for manipulating the market,” Attorney General Reyes said. “It’s outrageous that these companies colluded to inflate prices on generic drugs that should be affordable and increase quality of life for many people, like antibiotics and asthma medication.”

The complaint alleges that Teva, Sandoz, Mylan, Pfizer, and 16 other generic drug manufacturers engaged in a broad, coordinated and systematic campaign to conspire with each other to fix prices, allocate markets and rig bids for more than 100 different generic drugs.

The lawsuit lays out an interconnected web of industry executives meeting with each other to unlawfully discourage competition and includes emails, text messages, telephone records, and former company insiders reflecting a multi-year conspiracy to fix prices and divide the market share for huge numbers of generic drugs. In some instances, the coordinated price increases were over 1,000 percent.

The drugs span all types, including tablets, capsules, suspensions, creams, gels, ointments, and all classes, including statins, ace inhibitors, beta blockers, antibiotics, anti-depressants, contraceptives, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. These drugs are used to treat a range of diseases and conditions from basic infections to diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, HIV, ADHD, and more. 

The complaint is the second to be filed in an ongoing, expanding investigation that has been referred to as possibly the largest cartel case in the history of the United States.

In addition to Utah, other joining states include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Puerto Rico.

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NOTES:

1. You can find a copy of the complaint here: https://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2019-GDMS-Complaint.pdf.
    
2. The first complaint is still pending U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and includes 18 corporate defendants, two individual defendants, and 15 generic drugs. You can read that complaint here: https://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/2016-Generic-Pharmaceuticals-Pricing-Antitrust-Litigation.pdf. 
    
3. This case was featured on the Sunday, May 12 episode of 60 Minutes on CBS. You can view that here: https://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/_SPbK7pa0HqLvYkr65pLG0cjLDGbZOoJ/the-price-of-generics-the-most-unlikely-meeting-mark-bradford/.
    
4. The list of corporate defendants is as follows: 1. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.; 2. Sandoz, Inc.; 3. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc.; 4. Actavis Holdco US, Inc.; 5. Actavis Pharma, Inc.; 6. Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; 7. Apotex Corp.; 8. Aurobindo Pharma U.S.A., Inc.; 9. Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc.; 10. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Inc.; 11. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc. USA; 12. Greenstone LLC; 13. Lannett Company, Inc.; 14. Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; 15. Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc.; 16. Pfizer, Inc.; 17. Taro Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.; 18. Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC; 19. Wockhardt USA, LLC; and 20. Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA), Inc.
    
5. The list of individual defendants is as follows: 1. Ara Aprahamian, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Taro Pharmaceuticals U.S.A, Inc.; 2. David Berthold, Vice President of Sales at Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; 3. James Brown, Vice President of Sales at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; 4. Maureen Cavanaugh, former Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, North America, for Teva; 5. Marc Falkin, former Vice President, Marketing, Pricing and Contracts at Actavis; 6. James Grauso, former Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations for Aurobindo from December 2011 through January 2014. Since February 2014, Grauso has been employed as the Executive Vice President, N.A. Commercial Operations at Glenmark; 7. Kevin Green, former Director of National Accounts at Teva from January 2006 through October 2013.  Since November 2013, Green has worked at Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc. as the Vice President of Sales; 8. Armando Kellum, former Vice President, Contracting and Business Analytics at Sandoz; 9. Jill Nailor, Senior Director of Sales and National Accounts at Greenstone; 10. James Nesta, Vice President of Sales at Mylan; 11. Kon Ostaficiuk, the President of Camber Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; 12. Nisha Patel, former Director of Strategic Customer Marketing and later, Director of National Accounts at Teva.; 13. David Rekenthaler, former Vice President, Sales US Generics at Teva; 14. Richard Rogerson, former Executive Director of Pricing and Business Analytics at Actavis; and 15. Tracy Sullivan DiValerio, Director of National Accounts at Lannett.

Photo by Mika Baumeister