“This was a conspiracy to cheat the system — we won’t tolerate collusion that inflates drug prices and harms Ohioans who rely on affordable medication,” said Dave Yost, Ohio’s attorney general.
The drug manufacturers involved in the antitrust lawsuits are Apotex of Toronto and Heritage Pharmaceuticals of Eatontown, New Jersey, the attorney general’s office said.
Heritage Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay $10 million as part of the settlement, which was filed Dec. 15, 2016, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, in Hartford. Apotex’s share of the settlement is $39.1 million, bringing the total to $49.1 million.
“We are working to restore fair competition and hold wrongdoers accountable,” Yost said on Wednesday.
Yost joined a coalition of nearly all states and territories that filed three major antitrust complaints against 30 corporate defendants and 25 individual executives.
Details of the cases, according to the attorney general’s office, include:
- The first complaint, filed in 2016, included Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Apotex and 16 corporate defendants, two individual executives, and 15 generic drugs. Two former Heritage executives, Jeffery Glazer and Jason Malek, have since settled and are cooperating.
- The second complaint, filed in 2019, targeted Teva Pharmaceuticals, Apotex and 18 of the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers, naming 16 senior executives.
- The third complaint, filed in 2020, focuses on 80 topical generic drugs that account for billions of dollars in U.S. sales and names 26 corporate defendants and 10 individual defendants, the attorney general’s office said. Six pharmaceutical executives have settled in this case and are assisting in the litigation.
The cases are all built on evidence from several cooperating witnesses, along with a database of more than 20 million documents and millions of phone records showing communications among 600-plus sales and pricing executives in the generics industry, the attorney general’s office said.
The complaints describe an interconnected network of industry executives who secretly met at dinners and social gatherings and on private calls, using coded language such as “fair share,” “playing nice in the sandbox” and “responsible competitor” to disguise illegal agreements.
One key piece of evidence is a two-volume notebook kept by a cooperating witness, documenting secret discussions with competitors and internal meetings over several years, the attorney general’s office said.
Consumers who purchased certain generic prescription drugs between May 2009 and December 2019 may be eligible for compensation. To check eligibility, visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com, call 1-866-290-0182 (toll-free) or email info@AGGenericDrugs.com.
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