Utah joins lawsuit claiming generic drug price fixing

The office of Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes has announced that Utah has joined a federal antitrust lawsuit alleging that six generic drug-makers entered into illegal conspiracies in order to unreasonably restrain trade, artificially inflate and manipulate prices and reduce competition in the United States for two generic drugs.

The drugs involved are doxycycline hyclate delayed release, an antibiotic, and glyburide, an oral diabetes medication.

An amended complaint filed with the federal court increases from 20 to 40 the number of plaintiff states in the lawsuit, including Utah, which was initially filed in December 2016. The amended complaint also adds claims of alleged violations of state antitrust laws — in addition to the alleged violations of federal antitrust laws — in each of the 40 states, as well as state consumer protection laws in most of the states, against the defendant generic companies Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc., Aurobindo Pharma USA Inc., Citron Pharma LLC, Mayne Pharma (USA) Inc., Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc.

“Along with 39 other states, we have laid out a strong and compelling case. In our amended complaint, we allege that these drug companies engaged in anti-competitive behavior, driving drug prices artificially high for certain generic drugs to the serious detriment of consumers,” said Reyes. “With the filing of this amended complaint, my office hopes to send a message of zero tolerance for trade practices we believe harm Americans and particularly those that hurt residents of Utah.”

“I appreciate the hard work of my antitrust team, including section director Ronald Ockey, former division director david Sonnenreich, assistant attorney General Eddie Vasquez and their paralegal, Brian Blake, who have worked diligently with Connecticut and the other plaintiff states to bring this case forward.”

Connecticut is leading the multistate group of plaintiff states, which now also includes Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

In July 2014, the state of Connecticut initiated an investigation of the reasons behind suspicious price increases of certain generic pharmaceuticals. The investigation — which is still ongoing as to a number of additional generic drugs, generic drug companies and key executives — uncovered evidence of a well-coordinated and long-running conspiracy to fix prices and allocate markets for the drugs.

The complaint alleges that the drug companies routinely coordinated their schemes through direct interaction with their competitors at industry trade shows, customer conferences and other events, as well as through direct email, phone and text message communications. The alleged anticompetitive conduct — including efforts to fix and maintain prices, allocate markets and otherwise thwart competition — caused significant, harmful and continuing effects in the country’s healthcare system, the states allege.