Five Pharmaceutical Companies Charged in Ongoing Criminal Anti-Trust Investigation
With the announcement of another pharmaceutical company being charged for conspiring to fix prices for generic drugs, the Department of Justice has now charged five companies involved in this activity as the result of an ongoing antitrust investigation. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., the most recently charged company, allegedly worked with Apotex Corp. to increase and maintain prices of Pravastatin and other generic drugs.
According to a Department of Justice release, in or around May 2013 until at least in or around December 2015, the companies conspired to gain, at the expense of ill victims, at least $200 million. The primary drug fixed, Pravastatin, is a prescription medication that reduces cholesterol, helping to prevent heart attacks and strokes.
Glenmark primarily operated in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Glenmark is the fifth company charged in the last 13 months with antitrust violations in the generic pharmaceutical industry. The other four corporate charges, including the charge against Glenmark’s co-conspirator Apotex, were resolved by deferred prosecution agreements. Four senior executives have also been charged. Three entered guilty pleas and the fourth is awaiting trial.
“By cheating through fixing prices, generic drug companies artificially raised prices even though prescription drug costs were already sky high,” said Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “As today’s charge shows, the Antitrust Division will not hesitate to charge these companies, and litigate where necessary, particularly where their crimes resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in overcharges for life-saving medications.”
These charges stem from an ongoing federal antitrust investigation into market allocation, price fixing, bid rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct in the generic pharmaceutical industry. The Glenmark investigation was led by the Antitrust Division with the assistance of the United States Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington and Philadelphia Field Offices, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“The FBI will continue to work closely with our partners to pursue companies and individuals who seek to manipulate the economic system to their benefit,” said Timothy R. Slater, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office. “Today's charge demonstrates the FBI's ongoing commitment to rooting out this greed and illegal activity. There are real victims in these crimes; they are the patients around the country who rely on these vital medications.”
The charges filed this week leave Glenmark facing a statutory maximum penalty of $100 million, which may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by victims if either amount is greater than $100 million.