$29.6M Settlement Secured With Glenmark Over Conspiracy To Inflate Prices And Limit Competition

By InDepth NH

CONCORD, NH – Attorney General John M. Formella announces that New Hampshire, along with a coalition of 48 states and territories, has secured a $29.6 million settlement with Glenmark to resolve allegations that the generic drug manufacturer engaged in a widespread, long-running conspiracy to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade involving numerous generic prescription drugs.

As part of the settlement agreement, Glenmark will cooperate in the ongoing multistate litigation against 33 corporate defendants and 25 individual executives. The company has also agreed to implement a series of internal reforms to promote fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws.

“Fair competition is essential to a healthy marketplace and helps keep prescription drugs affordable for New Hampshire families,” said Attorney General Formella. “When companies conspire to manipulate prices and limit competition, consumers ultimately bear the cost. This settlement represents another important step in our ongoing effort to enforce antitrust laws, hold companies accountable, and work with our state and territorial partners to protect consumers and preserve a fair and competitive marketplace. Granite Staters who may have been affected by this alleged conduct should determine whether they are eligible for compensation.”

The State of New Hampshire will receive an estimated $36,633.88.

This figure reflects only the State’s allocation and does not include separate settlement funds available to eligible consumers who submit valid claims. Granite State consumers are encouraged to determine eligibility for compensation pursuant to the settlement. If you purchased a generic prescription drug manufactured by Glenmark, Lannett, Bausch, Apotex, or Heritage between May 1, 2009, and December 31, 2019, you may be eligible for compensation. To determine your eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182 (toll-free), email info@AGGenericDrugs.com, or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com. The Glenmark settlement follows settlements with Lannett, Bausch, Apotex, and Heritage totaling $66.95 million.

This latest settlement comes as the states prepare for the first trial in the ongoing litigation. A coalition of nearly all states and territories has been litigating a series of antitrust cases since 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 21 of the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers. The complaint names 16 individual senior executive defendants. The third complaint, which will be tried first, focuses on 80 topical generic drugs that account for billions of dollars in sales in the United States and names 26 corporate defendants and 10 individual defendants. Seven additional pharmaceutical executives have been cooperating to support the states’ claims. The cases all 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 more than 20 million documents, and a phone records database containing millions of call detail records and contact information for more than 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 competing industry executives who met during industry dinners, “girls nights out,” lunches, cocktail parties, and golf outings, and communicated through frequent telephone calls, emails, and text messages that sowed the seeds for their illegal agreements. Throughout the complaints, defendants use terms like “fair share,” “playing nice in the sandbox,” and “responsible competitor” to describe how they allegedly 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’ cooperating witnesses memorializing discussions during phone calls with competitors and internal company meetings over several years.

States and territories settling today with Glenmark include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, 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.

The New Hampshire Department of Justice Consumer Protection and Antitrust Bureau investigates unfair, deceptive or unreasonable practices involving New Hampshire consumers. To report fraud, scams, or deceptive business practices complaints can be filed online at https://www.doj.nh.gov/consumer/complaints or by calling (603) 271-3643.

This story was originally published by InDepth NH.