Attorney General Laxalt Joins 19 Other States in Federal Antitrust Lawsuit Against Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Other Generic Drug Companies


December 14, 2016

Carson City, NV – Today, Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt joined with 19 other attorneys general in filing a federal lawsuit against generic drug-makers Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Auribindo Pharma USA, Inc., Citron Pharma, LLC, Mayne Pharma (USA), Inc., Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.

    The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, alleges that the pharmaceutical companies entered into numerous illegal conspiracies in order to unreasonably restrain trade, artificially inflate and manipulate prices and reduce competition in the U.S. for two generic drugs: doxycycline hyclate delayed release and glyburide. Doxycycline hyclate delayed release is an antibiotic, and glyburide is an oral medication that treats diabetes. The States allege that the companies’ conduct violated the federal Sherman Act, and ask the Court to prevent the companies from engaging in illegal, anticompetitive behavior. The States also seek financial relief to address the violations of law and restore competition.

      “Generic drugs account for 88% of all prescriptions written in the U.S., and are intended to save customers and our healthcare system billions of dollars every year,” said Laxalt. “However, when drug-makers allegedly conspire together, this undermines legitimate competition. In joining this lawsuit, we are holding these companies accountable for their anticompetitive practices that harmed our country’s healthcare system and consumers.”

        The multistate investigation, that remains ongoing for a number of additional generic drugs, uncovered evidence of a broad, well-coordinated and long running series of conspiracies to fix prices and allocate markets to several generic pharmaceuticals in the U.S. The complaint alleges that the misconduct was conceived and carried out by senior drug company executives and their subordinate marketing and sales executives. Additional allegations include that the defendants 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.

          In addition to Nevada, other participating states include: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington.

            In order to protect the State’s ongoing investigation, the lawsuit was filed under seal and portions of the complaint were redacted. The publicly available complaint is attached.

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