More than a dozen current and former executives at top generic-drug makers, including Mylan NV and a unit of Pfizer Inc., were sued on Friday by more than 40 states led by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong.
"We have hard evidence that shows the generic drug industry perpetrated a multi-billion dollar fraud on the American people," Tong said in a statement Friday. "We all wonder why our health care, and specifically the prices for generic prescription drugs, are so expensive in this country - this is a big reason why."
The lawsuit accuses the drugmakers of inflating the prices of more than 100 different drugs, significantly broadening a 2016 complaint. In addition to the states, the Justice Department's antitrust division is conducting a criminal investigation. The unit's chief said last week that charges would be filed, without specifying timing.
The states say the pharmaceutical companies conspired with one another to fix prices and carve up markets for medicines among themselves, rather than compete on price. Executives used industry dinners, cocktail parties and golf outings to perpetuate the scheme, in addition to communicating through text messages and telephone calls, the complaint said. Novartis AG's Sandoz, Teva's Actavis unit, and Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. are also named in the complaint.
The executives named in the complaint are upper-level sales and marketing managers including Maureen Cavanaugh, a former senior vice president for Teva, who is now at Lannett Co., according to the company's website. James Nesta, Mylan's vice president of sales and David Rekenthaler, a former vice president of sales at Teva who is now at Apotex Inc., according to his LinkedIn profile, are also named as defendants.
Mylan president Rajiv Malik was named in a separate complaint filed by state attorneys general in 2017. That complaint is still pending.
Representatives for the companies didn't respond to requests for comment after regular business hours on Friday evening. Cavanaugh, Nesta and Rekenthaler didn't immediately respond to messages sent through LinkedIn.
The complaint puts Teva at the center of the conspiracy, saying it colluded with a core group of competitors to follow each other's price increases. During a 19-month period from 2013 to 2015, Teva significantly raised prices on about 112 different generic drugs. and colluded with its competitors on at least 86 medicines, the states said. While the size of the increases varied, some were more than 1,000%.
"Teva is a consistent participant in the conspiracies identified in this complaint, but the conduct is pervasive and industry-wide," according to the complaint, which was filed in federal court in Connecticut. "Through its senior-most executives and account managers, Teva participated in a wide-ranging series of restraints with more than a dozen generic drug manufacturers, all of whom knowingly and willingly participated."
The states are seeking unspecified damages and penalties from the companies.
Comment: See also: