CT Companies Conspired In Illegal Drug Price-Gouge Scheme: AG

HARTFORD, CT — Connecticut Attorney General William Tong along with 43 other state attorneys have filed a lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 other generic drug manufacturers over allegations that they conspired to artificially inflate drug prices for more than 100 common generic drugs.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court District of Connecticut and names 15 senior company executives. Together the drugs account for billions of sales in the U.S. and include statins, beta blockers, antibiotics, antidepressants, GERD medications, contraceptives and others. In some cases generic drug prices shot up 1,000 percent, according to the lawsuit.

“These are drugs that people in this country rely on every day for acute and chronic conditions and diseases from diabetes and cancer to depression and arthritis,” Tong said. “We all wonder why our healthcare, and specifically the prices for generic prescription drugs, are so expensive in this country—this is a big reason why.”

Connecticut-based Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc. is mentioned in the lawsuit as is Pfizer, which has its research headquarters in Connecticut.

The lawsuit alleges that company executives met at industry get together events, golf outings and other events. The executives then coordinated via email, phone and text messages, some of which have been obtained by the attorney general offices. They agreed to artificially reduce competition. They agreed to rig bids and set prices high, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages, civil penalties and restoration of competitive prices. It also alleges that the increased prices affected health insurance markets, taxpayer-funded healthcare like Medicare and Medicaid and individuals who had higher out-of-pocket costs for common generic prescriptions.

A similar lawsuit is pending an outcome in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. That lawsuit filed in 2016 includes 18 corporate defendants, two individual defendants and 15 generic drugs.

Corporate Defendants

1. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.
2. Sandoz, Inc.
3. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc.
4. Actavis Holdco US, Inc.
5. Actavis Pharma, Inc.
6. Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
7. Apotex Corp.
8. Aurobindo Pharma U.S.A., Inc.
9. Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc.
10. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Inc.
11. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc. USA
12. Greenstone LLC
13. Lannett Company, Inc.
14. Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
15. Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc.
16. Pfizer, Inc.
17. Taro Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.
18. Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC
19. Wockhardt USA, LLC
20. Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA), Inc.

Individual defendants

1. Ara Aprahamian, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Taro Pharmaceuticals U.S.A, Inc. David Berthold, Vice President of Sales at Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
2. David Berthold, Vice President of Sales at Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
3. James Brown, Vice President of Sales at Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
4. Maureen Cavanaugh, former Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, North America, for Teva
5. Marc Falkin, former Vice President, Marketing, Pricing and Contracts at Actavis
6. James Grauso, former Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations for Aurobindo from December 2011 through January 2014. Since February 2014, Grauso has been employed as the Executive Vice President, N.A. Commercial Operations at Glenmark
7. Kevin Green, former Director of National Accounts at Teva from January 2006 through October 2013. Since November 2013, Green has worked at Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc. as the Vice President of Sales
8. Armando Kellum, former Vice President, Contracting and Business Analytics at Sandoz
9. Jill Nailor, Senior Director of Sales and National Accounts at Greenstone
10. James Nesta, Vice President of Sales at Mylan
11. Kon Ostaficiuk, the President of Camber Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
12. Nisha Patel, former Director of Strategic Customer Marketing and later, Director of National Accounts at Teva.
13. David Rekenthaler, former Vice President, Sales US Generics at Teva
14. Richard Rogerson, former Executive Director of Pricing and Business Analytics at Actavis
15. Tracy Sullivan DiValerio, Director of National Accounts at Lannett

In addition to Connecticut, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Puerto Rico joined the new lawsuit.