Israel’s Teva Pulls Out Of Settlement Talks With DOJ Over Price-Fixing Claims

Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals is said to have essentially “walked away” from settlement talks with the US Justice Department’s antitrust division in a high-profile lawsuit alleging a price-fixing effort among drug manufacturers including Teva. 

The company is reportedly betting that the White House will not pursue charges given Teva’s help in the fight against COVID-19, specifically with an anti-malaria pharmaceutical drug touted by US President Donald Trump himself as a “game-changer.”

According to a New York Times report on Friday, May 15, Teva “is betting that in the middle of a deadly pandemic, the Trump administration won’t dare to come down hard on the largest supplier of generic drugs in the United States.”

Teva was named last year in an antitrust lawsuit brought by over 40 US states alleging a price-fixing conspiracy among drug manufacturers, with the Israeli company said to have raised the costs of some medications by over 1,000%. The suit came after a years-long investigation.

Teva has denied wrongdoing in the suit and has been holding settlement negotiations with US officials, but stopped sometime in April, according to the New York Times report.

Full Content: New York Times

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