Business ProfileforPfizer Inc.

The following describes a pending government action that has been formally brought by a government agency but has not yet been resolved. We are providing a summary of the governments allegations, which have not yet been proven.

On 5/13/2019, Attorney General Letitia James joined 43 states led by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong in announcing a lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 of the nation's largest generic drug manufacturers alleging a broad conspiracy to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade for more than 100 different generic drugs. The drugs at issue account for billions of dollars of sales in the United States.  The States allege that the Defendants’ conduct artificially increased prices to health insurers, taxpayer-funded healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and individuals who paid and continue to pay inflated prices for their prescription drugs.  

The complaint alleges that Teva, Sandoz, Mylan, Pfizer and 16 other generic drug manufacturers engaged in a broad, coordinated and systematic conspiracy to fix prices, allocate markets, and rig bids for more than 100 different generic drugs. The drugs span all types, including tablets, capsules, suspensions, creams, gels, and ointments; and classes, including statins, ace inhibitors, beta blockers, antibiotics, anti-depressants, contraceptives, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. They treat a range of diseases and conditions from basic infections to diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, HIV, ADHD, and more. In some instances, the coordinated price increases were over 1,000 percent.  

The complaint lays out an interconnected web of industry executives where these competitors who met with each other during industry dinners, lunches, cocktail parties, golf outings and communicated via frequent telephone calls, emails, and text messages sowing the seeds for their illegal agreements. Throughout the complaint, defendants are described as using terms like "fair share," "playing nice in the sandbox," and "responsible competitor" to describe how they unlawfully discouraged competition, raised prices, and enforced an ingrained culture of collusion. 

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, seeks damages, civil penalties, and equitable relief to restore competition to the generic drug market.  

In addition to New York, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Puerto Rico joined the suit. 

Corporate Defendants 
1.             Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. 
2.             Sandoz, Inc. 
3.             Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. 
4.             Actavis Holdco US, Inc. 
5.             Actavis Pharma, Inc. 
6.             Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 
7.             Apotex Corp. 
8.             Aurobindo Pharma U.S.A., Inc. 
9.             Breckenridge Pharmaceutical, Inc. 
10.           Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Inc. 
11.           Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc. USA 
12.           Greenstone LLC 
13.           Lannett Company, Inc. 
14.           Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. 
15.           Par Pharmaceutical Companies, Inc. 
16.           Pfizer, Inc. 
17.           Taro Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. 
18.           Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC 
19.           Wockhardt USA, LLC 
20.           Zydus Pharmaceuticals (USA), Inc. 

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CT AG Leads Coalition Filing 3rd Complaint in Ongoing Antitrust Price-Fixing Investigation Into Generic Drug Industry

On 6/10/2020, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong led a coalition of 51 states and territories in filing the third lawsuit stemming from the ongoing antitrust investigation into a widespread conspiracy by generic drug manufacturers to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade for generic drugs sold across the United States. This new Complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, focuses on 80 topical generic drugs that account for billions of dollars of sales in the United States. The Complaint names 26 corporate Defendants and 10 individual Defendants. The lawsuit seeks damages, civil penalties, and actions by the court to restore competition to the generic drug market.

The Complaint stems from an ongoing investigation built on evidence from several cooperating witnesses at the core of the conspiracy, a massive document database of over 20 million documents, and a phone records database containing millions of call detail records and contact information for over 600 sales and pricing individuals in the generics industry. Among the records obtained by the States is a two-volume notebook containing the contemporaneous notes of one of the States’ cooperators that memorialized his discussions during phone calls with competitors and internal company meetings over a period of several years.

The Complaint is the third to be filed in an ongoing, expanding investigation that the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General has referred to as possibly the largest domestic corporate cartel case in the history of the United States. The first Complaint, still pending in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, was filed in 2016 and now includes 18 corporate Defendants, two individual Defendants, and 15 generic drugs. The second Complaint, also pending in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, was filed in 2019 against Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 of the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers. The Complaint names 16 individual senior executive Defendants. The States are currently preparing for trial on that Complaint.

Corporate Defendants:
1. Sandoz, Inc.
2. Actavis Holdco U.S., Inc.
3. Actavis Elizabeth LLC
4. Actavis Pharma, Inc.
5. Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
6. Amneal Pharmaceuticals, LLC
7. Aurobindo Pharma USA, Inc.
8. Bausch Health Americas, Inc.
9. Bausch Health, US LLC
10. Fougera Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
11. G&W Laboratories, Inc.
12. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA
13. Greenstone LLC
14. Lannett Company, Inc.
15. Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
16. Mallinckrodt Inc.
17. Mallinckrodt plc
18. Mallinckrodt LLC
19. Mylan Inc.
20. Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc.
21. Perrigo New York, Inc.
22. Pfizer, Inc.
23. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Inc.
24. Taro Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.
25. Teligent, Inc.
26. Wockhardt USA, LLC