The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday charged Israeli generic drug giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd with illegally fixing prices between 2013 and 2015.
Teva and several coconspirators “agreed to fix prices, rig bids and allocate customers for generic drugs,” including the popular cholesterol-regulating medicine Pravastatin, the department said in a statement.
Patients would have paid a total of US$350 million more than they should have, it said.
Photo: Reuters
Rejecting the charges, Teva said it was “deeply disappointed that the [US] government has chosen to proceed with this prosecution.”
Efforts to find a solution had made no progress as “the DOJ has shown an unwillingness to consider alternatives that would not deeply impact Teva and the stakeholders who depend on the company, including the patients who benefit from our medicines,” Teva said in a statement.
Five companies investigated in the case have already paid heavy fines to avoid prosecution.
Sandoz, a subsidiary of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG, agreed to pay US$195 million in March, and the US subsidiary of the Israeli group Taro Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd last month agreed to pay US$205.7 million.
Other companies involved include Apotex Inc, which agreed to pay a US$24.1 million fine in May, and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd, which was indicted by a grand jury last month.
Teva, which sold US$17 billion of drugs last year, was also accused earlier this month by US authorities of artificially inflating the reimbursement price for its multiple-sclerosis drug Copaxone for patients in the government-run Medicare program.
Separately, Sepehr Sarshar, the former founder and chief executive of Auspex Pharmaceuticals Inc, was on Tuesday arrested in California on insider trading charges, accused of feeding secrets that enabled friends and family to earn more than US$700,000 illegally.
Sepehr, 53, of Encinitas, California, was charged in Manhattan federal court with securities fraud, wire fraud and fraud in connection with a tender offer.
He was released on US$1 million bail after an initial appearance in San Diego federal court.
Authorities said he provided inside information in 2015 about a pending US$3.2 billion buyout offer from Teva to his friends and family so they could trade securities in Auspex.
Additional reporting by AP
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