Aug. 8, 2018
Dive
Brief:
- Health
insurance giant Humana has added its own accusations to ongoing state and
federal antitrust probes of the generic drug industry, claiming in a civil
lawsuit that more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies colluded to fix
prices.
- The company filed a 273-page
racketeering suit Friday in the U.S. District
Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against nearly
30 drug companies, including big names such as Teva, Novartis, Mylan and
Actavis (now part of Allergan).
- The suit closely tracks active
federal and state antitrust investigations, explicitly referencing them
throughout. Humana's suit lists 16 generics that range from antifungals to
antidepressants to cholesterol medication that it claims are part of the
scheme.
Dive
Insight:
This
civil suit adds another dimension to the potential legal risks
facing generic drug companies and their top executives.
Humana
is seeking "to recover damages it incurred from egregious overcharges
it paid for certain widely-used generic drugs," the lawsuit said,
"arising from a far-reaching conspiracy among Defendants and others to
blatantly fix the price of such drugs."
The
company has spent more than $1.7 billion on the 16 listed drugs in the
suit, according to Becker's Hospital
Review.
By
relying on the substance of state and federal investigations into price-fixing
schemes for generic drugs, this suit could add more weight to those
investigations.
Forty-seven
state attorneys general along with Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico have filed
a civil enforcement action on price fixing that was broadened to include 15
drugs in an update filed June 18. It was originally filed in March 2017. Four
of those 15 drugs are included in Humana's lawsuit (doxycycline, leflunomide,
nystatin and verapamil).
Federal
investigators have also been aggressively probing generic drugmakers over
the past four years.
The
Department of Justice opened a criminal collusion investigation in November
2014. Throughout 2015 and 2016, many drug companies disclosed in their SEC
filings that they received DOJ grand jury subpoenas, including Teva, Mylan and
Allergan.
DOJ
has already secured two guilty pleas. Heritage Pharmaceuticals executives Jeffrey Glazer and Jason Malek pled
guilty to federal criminal charges on Jan. 9, 2017, in violating the antitrust
Sherman Act.
By
May 2017, Glazer and Malek entered into settlement and agreements with the
multi-state lawsuit as well. They agreed to provide documents, testimony and
depositions to help the investigation.
Humana's
lawsuit cited these probes and reports together in painting a broader picture
of collusion among drug companies to keep prices high.
The
lawyer in charge of Humana's suit declined to comment on the pending litigation
as a matter of policy.
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