Another Class Action Says Leading Drug Cos. Conspired to Fix Prices

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The price of cholesterol-lowering pravastatin tablets was artificially inflated as the result of a price-fixing conspiracy between a group of major drug companies, a new proposed class action lawsuit alleges. Filed in Pennsylvania by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers Health and Welfare Fund, the 54-page lawsuit claims the defendants—Actavis Holdco U.S., Inc., Apotex Corp., Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Inc., Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA, Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Mylan Inc., Myland Pharmaceuticals Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., and Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA) Inc.—violated federal antirust law by conspiring to “fix, raise, maintain, and stabilize the prices of, as well as allocate customers and markets for, pravastatin.”

The generic drug pravastatin has been on the market for more than 20 years, the lawsuit notes, and is normally priced significantly lower than name brand counterparts amid a vigorously competitive market. According to the complaint, the price of pravastatin skyrocketed between 300 and 600 percent from 2013 and 2014, apparently the result of “secret communications and meetings, both in private and at public events, such as trade association meetings held by the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, among others.”