Generic Drugmaker Admits to Price Fixing
New Jersey-based generic drugmaker Heritage Pharmaceuticals admitted to fixing prices and will pay more than $7 million in criminal and civil damages, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday.Heritage admitted to conspiring to fix prices, rig bids and allocate customers for the Type 2 diabetes drug glyburide. In a separate civil resolution, Heritage has agreed to pay $7.1 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act related to price fixing.
“The government alleged that between 2012 and 2015, Heritage paid and received remuneration through arrangements on price, supply, and allocation of customers with other pharmaceutical manufacturers for certain generic drugs in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute, and that its sale of such drugs resulted in claims submitted to or purchases by federal healthcare programs. The drugs allegedly implicated in this scheme address a wide variety of health conditions, and include hydralazine, used to treat high blood pressure, theophylline, used to treat asthma and other respiratory problems, and glyburide,” DOJ said.
Recently, more than 40 states also filed a complaint against 20 generic drug manufacturers, alleging that the companies worked together to conspire with each other to set prices of more than 100 generic drugs.
And in 2016, similar charges were also filed by 20 states against Heritage for price-fixing related to the antibiotic doxycycline and glyburide.
Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division said in a statement: “It is particularly galling that, when healthcare prices in the United States are already high, certain generic pharmaceutical companies and executives engaged in collusive conduct at the expense of individuals who depend on critical medications…this resolution — requiring an admission of guilt, a criminal penalty, and cooperation in the ongoing investigation — sends a clear message to generic pharmaceutical companies and their executives that this conduct will not be tolerated.”