2 Somerset County Companies Conspired To Inflate Drug Prices: AG

SOMERSET COUNTY, NJ — Two Somerset County companies were accused in a federal lawsuit of illegally conspiring to artificially inflate the price of more than 100 generic drugs, according to the Office of Attorney General.

Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Bridgewater and Greenstone LLC in North Peapack were among the 11 New Jersey companies named in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District court, according to a news release.

The complaint alleges that price-fixing by the defendants has caused significant financial damage to state health plans, taxpayer-funded federal healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, employer-sponsored heath plans and individual consumers who pay out-of-pocket for their generic medications, according to the release.

The complaint alleges that the collusive activity peaked between July 2013 and January 2015, when one of the participants in the alleged conspiracy, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., is alleged to have significantly raised prices on about 387 formulations of 112 different generic drugs.

The size of the alleged price increases varies, but a number of drugs saw their prices soar by "well over 1,000 percent," according to the release.

Drugs subject to the unlawful pricing manipulations included all classes of medication, including oral antibiotics, blood thinners, cancer drugs, contraceptives, anti-inflammatory drugs, statins, anti-depressants, medications used to treat HIV, blood pressure medications and many more.

"We all know that prescription drugs can be expensive. Now we know that high drug prices have been driven in part by an illegal conspiracy among generic drug companies to inflate their prices," said Attorney General Gurbir Grewal. "It is particularly troubling that so much of this unlawful conduct took place in New Jersey. I've said before and I'll say again that New Jersey's pharmaceutical industry is the envy of the world. But no New Jersey company will get a free pass when it violates the law and harms our residents, just because it is located here."

For a complete list of individuals and companies named in the lawsuit, click here.

— With reporting by Tom Davis, Patch staff

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