Generic drug price-fixing settlement overview:
- Who: Generic drug makers Apotex Corp., Heritage Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and Breckenridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. agreed to a combined $45 million in settlements.
- Why: The settlements were made to end claims the generic drug makers colluded to fix prices for a number of medications.
- Where: The settlements result from a multidistrict litigation in Pennsylvania federal court.
Three generic drug makers agreed to pay a combined $45 million in settlements to put an end to claims they engaged in price-fixing a number of medications.
In three separate settlements, Apotex Corp. agreed to pay around $30 million, Heritage Pharmaceuticals Ltd. agreed to pay $10 million and Breckenridge Pharmaceuticals Inc. agreed to pay $5 million to end the claims.
The settlement amounts could ultimately increase or decrease based on the number of class members who either make a claim to join or choose to opt out of the agreements, according to requests for preliminary approval of the deals.
Apotex, Heritage and Breckenridge have also each agreed to provide information that will help in prosecuting other non-settling defendants involved in an ongoing multidistrict litigation, including Pfizer Inc., Mylan NV and Actavis PLC, among others.
Generic drug makers MDL started in 2016
Claims against the generic drug makers involved in the multidistrict litigation have come from a number of different sources, including direct buyers, resellers, consumers and state attorneys general, Law360 reports. The litigation began in 2016.
The Apotex, Heritage and Breckenridge settlements were made to compensate a class of all persons or entities that purchased a generic drug from one of the companies from between May 2009 and December 2019.
Per the settlement agreements, Apotex could end up paying as much as $37 million and as little as $26.4 million; Heritage could pay as much as $12.5 million; and Breckenridge could pay as little as $4.3 million and as much as $6.1 million.
The federal judge overseeing the multidistrict litigation signed off last year on a combined $75 million settlement that put an end to price-fixing claims lobbied by direct purchasers against Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Inc. and Taro Pharmaceutical Industries USA Inc.
Have you been affected by drugmakers fixing the price of generic drugs? Let us know in the comments.
The Generic drug price-fixing settlement is In re: Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 2:16-md-02724, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
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272 thoughts onGeneric drug makers to pay combined $45M in settlements to end price-fixing litigation
Medicare Advantage plans require that I purchase generic prescriptions. The prices I pay for the same medications and quantities continuously fluctuate and are unpredictable from month to month. Insurance company reps don’t even know how much I’m supposed to pay for my prescriptions, so I never know what to expect until I get to the register.
Is it possible to get a list of the drugs involved for each company? I use generic drugs daily but I do not know what companies produce them.
That’s not all they’re fixing. Now, the drugs they’re making don’t work at all. They are fakes. Thousands of patients that rely on these lifesaving medications are not being helped by the medications as in the past and have complained to FDA, their doctors, and their pharmacists. Many patients have even reported becoming extremely ill from currently dispensed generic medications. It is known that most of the manufacturing of these generic medications is now outsourced to companies in foreign countries like China or India, some of which may include companies that have already been caught making fake medications to the cost of lives. When will the government do something about this!
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