Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s (NYSE: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) woes continue. After the huge lawsuit concerning the sale of opioid drugs, Teva is now a defendant in a claim of price-fixing filed by 44 US states on Friday following a five-year investigation.
Teva's share price is down more than 8% on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange this morning.
"We have hard evidence that shows the generic drug industry perpetrated a multi-billion dollar fraud on the American people. We all wonder why our health care, and specifically the prices for generic prescription drugs, are so expensive in this country - this is a big reason why," Bloomberg quotes Connecticut Attorney General William Tong as saying on Friday.
According to the statement of claim, filed against Mylan and Pfizer as well as against Teva, the generic drug makers inflated the prices of more than 100 drugs. Teva is also suspected of being involved in price fixing during a period of nineteen months between 2013 and 2015. According to the claim, Teva substantially raised the prices of 112 generic drugs, and colluded with the producers of 86 more drugs to fix their prices. According to the claim, the price rises reached as much as 1,000%.
"Teva is a consistent participant in the conspiracies identified in this complaint, but the conduct is pervasive and industry-wide. Through its senior-most executives and account managers, Teva participated in a wide-ranging series of restraints with more than a dozen generic drug manufacturers, all of whom knowingly and willingly participated," the lawsuit, filed in the US District Court in Connecticut, states.
A representative of Teva unit Teva USA said in a statement, "The allegations in this new complaint, and in the litigation more generally, are just that - allegations. Teva continues to review the issue internally and has not engaged in any conduct that would lead to civil or criminal liability."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 12, 2019
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