Nevadans who bought certain generic prescription drugs in the United States between Jan. 1, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2018, could be eligible for money
Oct. 31, 2024
Carson City, NV – Today, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford has joined a coalition of 50 states and territories to announce two significant cooperation agreements and settlements with Heritage Pharmaceuticals and Apotex totaling $49.1 million.
These agreements resolve allegations that both companies 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.
“I am pleased to announce these two companies have done the right thing by settling with the states to resolve these claims, both for consumers and for competition in the marketplace,” said AG Ford. “My office will always stand up for consumer rights against agencies who attempt to unlawfully manipulate the market.”
Nevadans who purchased a generic prescription drug manufactured by either Heritage or Apotex between 2010 and 2018 may be eligible for compensation. To determine eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182 (Toll-Free); email info@AGGenericDrugs.com; or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.
As part of their settlement agreements, both companies have agreed to cooperate in the ongoing multistate litigations led by Connecticut against 30 corporate defendants and 25 individual executives. Both companies have further agreed to a series of internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws. A motion for preliminary approval of the $10 million settlement with Heritage will be filed today in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut in Hartford. A settlement with Apotex for $39.1 million is contingent upon obtaining signatures from all necessary states and territories and will be finalized and filed in the U.S. District Court in the near future.
The settlements come as the states prepare for the first trial to be held in Hartford, Connecticut.
The coalition of attorneys general filed three antitrust complaints starting 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 19 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. Six additional pharmaceutical executives have entered into settlement agreements with the States and have been cooperating to support the States’ claims in all three cases.
The cases 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. Each complaint addresses a different set of drugs and defendants and lays out an interconnected web of industry executives who sowed the seeds for these illegal agreements.
Throughout the complaints, defendants use terms like "fair share," "playing nice in the sandbox," and "responsible competitor" to describe how they unlawfully discouraged competition, raised prices and enforced an ingrained culture of collusion. Among the records obtained by the states is a two-volume notebook containing the contemporaneous notes of one of the states’ cooperators that memorialized his discussions during phone calls with competitors and internal company meetings over a period of several years.
In making this announcement, AG Ford joins the attorneys general members of the multistate coalition led by Connecticut Assistant Attorney General Joseph Nielsen. Besides Nevada, the coalition includes the states and territories of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Puerto Rico.
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