Attorney General Kaul Announces Multistate Settlements With Lannett and Bausch Totaling $17.85 Million Over Conspiracies to Inflate Prices and Limit Competition, Announces New Complaint Against Novartis AG, Sandoz AG, and Sandoz Group AG
MADISON, Wis. – Attorney General Josh Kaul today announced that a coalition of 48 states and territories have joined two additional settlements with Lannett Company, Inc. (“Lannett”) and Bausch Health US, LLC and Bausch Health Americas, Inc. (“Bausch”), totaling $17.85 million to resolve allegations that both companies engaged in widespread, long-running conspiracies to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to numerous generic prescription drugs. As part of their settlement agreements, both companies have agreed to cooperate in the ongoing multistate litigation against 30 corporate defendants and 25 individual executives. Both companies have further agreed to a series of internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws.
The Lannett and Bausch settlements follow prior settlements with Apotex and Heritage which totaled $49.1 million.
If you purchased a generic prescription drug manufactured by either Lannett or Bausch between May 2009 and December 2019, you may be eligible for compensation. To determine your eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182 (Toll-Free), email info@AGGenericDrugs.com, or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.
Also today, Wisconsin and 41 other states and territories filed a new lawsuit against Novartis AG and its subsidiaries Sandoz Group AG and Sandoz AG alleging a systemic campaign to conspire with other generic manufacturers to fix prices, allocate markets and rig bids for 31 different generic drugs. The complaint further alleges that Novartis took steps to fraudulently transfer and drain assets from Sandoz, a defendant in the three previously filed state antitrust complaints, and spin off Sandoz Inc. to shield Novartis from liability in the three previously filed state antitrust complaints against the company.
“Strong enforcement of antitrust laws helps with affordability,” said AG Kaul. “Consumers should pay prices that result from fair competition.”
Today’s announced settlement and lawsuit are the result of Wisconsin’s previously joining a coalition of nearly all states and territories in a series of antitrust cases, starting first in 2016. The first complaint included Heritage and 17 other corporate defendants, two individual defendants, and 15 generic drugs. Two former executives from Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Jeffery Glazer and Jason Malek, have since entered into settlement agreements and are cooperating. The second complaint was filed in 2019 against Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 generic drug manufacturers. The complaint names 16 individual defendants. The third complaint focuses on 80 topical generic drugs that account for billions of dollars of sales in the United States and names 26 corporate defendants and 10 individual defendants. Seven additional pharmaceutical executives have entered into settlement agreements with the states and territories and have been cooperating to support the remaining claims.
The cases all stem from a series of investigations built on evidence from several cooperating witnesses at the core of the different conspiracies, a massive document database of over 20 million documents, and a phone records database containing millions of call detail records and contact information for over 600 sales and pricing individuals in the generics industry.
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Puerto Rico joined in today’s announcement.
States and territories filing the new complaint against Novartis AG and Sandoz AG include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
View the Bausch-Lannett complaint here.
View the Novartis complaint here.
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.
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