Settlement Regards Sandoz Inflating Drug Prices and Limiting Competition
HARRISBURG – Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that Pennsylvania is part of a national coalition agreeing to a $400 million settlement with Sandoz Inc. and Fougera Pharmaceuticals Inc. regarding the generic drug manufacturers’ practices to limit competition and raise prices for Pennsylvania consumers.
The settlement would resolve allegations that Sandoz and Fougera engaged in widespread, long-running conspiracies to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to numerous generic prescription drugs.
A motion for preliminary approval of the settlement was filed this week in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut in Hartford.
As part of the settlement, Pennsylvania is expected to receive more than $14.8 million, with up to $9.19 million committed to consumer restitution and the remainder to state agencies.
“This settlement will have significant impact for Pennsylvanians who chose generic drugs as a cost-savings measure, but instead were subjected to a market manipulated to maximize the company’s profits,” Attorney General Sunday said.
“The settlement is the latest result of this national coalition’s commitment to protect consumers by holding companies accountable.”
If you purchased a generic drug listed here between May 2009 and December 2019, 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.
In addition to the monetary commitments, Sandoz has agreed to meaningful injunctive terms including a series of internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws.
The settlement will also resolve allegations that Sandoz Inc.’s past and present international affiliates, Novartis AG, Sandoz AG, and Sandoz Group AG, participated in the alleged anticompetitive conduct and fraudulently transferred assets in order to avoid liability.
The states have also secured settlements in the same litigation with Glenmark, Lannett, Bausch, Apotex and Heritage, totaling approximately $96.5 million.
This coalition is part of a series of antitrust cases, starting first in 2016. The first complaint included Heritage and 17 other corporate defendants, two individual defendants, and 15 generic drugs. Two former executives from Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Jeffery Glazer and Jason Malek, have since entered into settlement agreements and are cooperating.
The second complaint was filed in 2019 against Teva Pharmaceuticals and 20 of the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers. The complaint names 16 individual senior executive defendants.
The third complaint, to be tried first, 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 states filed a fourth complaint earlier this year, alleging that Novartis AG, Sandoz Group AG and Sandoz AG, are liable for Sandoz’s alleged conduct and for fraudulently transferring assets. Seven pharmaceutical executives have been cooperating to support the states’ claims in these four cases.
The cases all stem from a series of investigations built on evidence from several cooperating witnesses at the core of the different conspiracies, a massive document database of over 20 million documents, and a phone records database containing millions of call detail records and contact information for over 600 sales and pricing individuals in the generics industry.
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