US: Feds take on case for possible saline price fixing

The chance that some drugmakers will be charged for fixing the price of their saline solution has escalated as a federal probe has moved from the investigation phase to a federal courtroom where federal prosecutors are presenting evidence to a grand jury.

Notice of the new phase came in an SEC filing from Baxter International on Friday, in which it said that one of its employees received a grand jury subpoena from a federal court in Pennsylvania for an investigation by the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

The subpoena ordered the employee to provide documents and testimony about the manufacture, pricing and shortages of saline solution and other injectables. It also wants info about and any communications the company had with competitors about any of that, Baxter reported. The drugmaker, which said it is cooperating, said it earlier got a request from the New York attorney general’s office to provide info about the saline IV business.

The shortage and rapidly rising prices of the most ubiquitous of hospital supplies came to the forefront in the fall of 2015 when senators from both parties held hearings and called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate why shortages of saline persisted even as prices were rising.

Full Content: Market Watch

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