By David McLaughlin and Yaacov Benmeleh | 10 May 2019
- States file new antitrust complaint naming company executives
- Pricing scheme allegedly cost consumers billions of dollars
BLOOMBERG — Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. helped mastermind a sweeping conspiracy among generic drugmakers to raise the price of medicines, according to a new antitrust lawsuit filed by states that stems from a five-year investigation of the companies. Teva’s stock plunged the most in three months.
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 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. […]
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