UNITED STATES – Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd was charged by the U.S Justice Department on the grounds of conspiring with competitors to game the price for generic drugs to raise them above their actual selling prices.
A high cholesterol drug was the main focus of the investigation that reveals there were other drugs they had hiked the prices over. The Justice Department cited that they were colluding with drug makers to push the costs of each drug up to grab dividends from the surcharge.
“Today’s charge reaffirms that no company is too big to be prosecuted for its role in conspiracies that led to substantially higher prices for generic drugs relied on by millions of Americans. It firmly rejects the allegations and will vigorously defend the Company in court.” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim.
Teva refused to agree to a settlement that would have them pay a criminal penalty and admit to their wrong doing.
Three companies conspired with Teva to inflate the drug price which brought the U.S District Court to file an indictment for the Easten District of Pennsylvania with the three growing to a collection of companies that included Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Apotex Corp, Taro Pharmaceutical Industries and Sandoz Inc.
Glenmark and Apotex worked with Teva to increase the prices on cholesterol-lowering generic drugs like Pravastatin.
Teva and Taro rigged bids and allocated customers for the drugs to treat arthritis, seizures, pain, skin conditions and blood clots with increased pricing.
Sandoz and Teva were accused of a conspiracy charge that involved drugs to treat hypertension, cystic fibrosis, arthritis and brain cancer.
Despite these charges, Apotex, Taro and Sandoz admitted to their roles in these charges and conspiracies and agreed to pay the penalties set on them by the U.S Justice Department.
Teva has tried to reach a resolution with the U.S Department of Justice which was not successful as Teva wanted alternative solutions that would not impact its stakeholders and people who use their medicines while the department wanted to be penalized like the rest of those caught.
