According to Reuters 44 U.S. states filed a lawsuit accusing Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc of orchestrating a sweeping scheme with 19 other drug companies to inflate drug prices – sometimes by more than 1,000% – and stifle competition for generic drugs, state prosecutors said on Saturday.
According to the complaint, with Teva at the center of the conspiracy, the drug companies colluded to significantly raise prices on 86 medicines between July 2013 and January 2015. .
“The allegations in this new complaint, and in the litigation more generally, are just that – allegations, Teva continues to review the issue internally and has not engaged in any conduct that would lead to civil or criminal liability.” Teva responded to the lawsuit.
The soaring drug prices, like said 1000%, has put warring Democrats and the Republicans on the same side, from President Donald Trump, a Republican, to progressive Democrats including U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is running for president.
The lawsuit also names 15 individuals as defendants who it said carried out the schemes on a day-to-day basis.
“The level of corporate greed alleged in this multistate lawsuit is heartless and unconscionable,” Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak said in a statement.
According to New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, more than half of the corporate defendants are based in New Jersey, and five of the individual defendants live in the state.
The lawsuit seeks damages, civil penalties and actions by the court to restore competition to the generic drug market.
Generic drugs can save drug buyers and taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year because they are a lower-priced alternative to brand-name drugs.
“Generic drugs were one of the few ‘bargains’ in the United States healthcare system, Prices for hundreds of generic drugs have risen – while some have skyrocketed, without explanation, sparking outrage from politicians, payers and consumers across the country whose costs have doubled, tripled, or even increased 1,000% or more.” says the Lawsuit
As a result of the drug companies’ conspiracies, consumers and states paid “substantially inflated and anticompetitive prices for numerous generic pharmaceutical drugs” while the drug companies profited.
The lawsuit filed on Friday is parallel to an action brought in December 2016 by the attorneys general of 45 states and the District of Columbia. That case was later expanded to include more than a dozen drugmakers.
The 20 drug companies engaged in illegal conspiracies to divide up the market for drugs to avoid competing and, in some cases, conspired to either prevent prices from dropping or to raise them, according to the complaint by 44 U.S. states, the 500-page lawsuit, filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut.
Reuters
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