Teva Charged In US Price-Fixing Probe

Pharmaceutical group Teva has been charged in the US with conspiring to fix the price of generic drugs, including a common cholesterol treatment, after it refused to settle with the US Department of Justice, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The Israeli company was on Tuesday the seventh drugmaker to be charged in the price-fixing investigation and was accused of participating in three separate conspiracies.

Companies including Sandoz, Taro Pharmaceuticals, and Apotex have admitted their role in the conspiracies and paid penalties totalling almost $425m. Glenmark, an alleged co-conspirator of Teva, is awaiting trial.

The DoJ accused Teva of conspiracy to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate customers for generic drugs in schemes that ran from at least as early as May 2013 to at least December 2015. Each charge carries a potential penalty of $100m or up to twice the gain from the crime or losses suffered by customers.

Makan Delrahim, assistant attorney-general of the DoJ’s antitrust division, said the investigation is designed to “ensure that companies that blatantly cheat consumers of the benefits of free markets are prosecuted to the full extent of the law”.

He added: “Today’s charge reaffirms that no company is too big to be prosecuted for its role in conspiracies that led to substantially higher prices for generic drugs relied on by millions of Americans.”

Full Content: Wall Street Journal

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.