Attorney General Fitch joined a coalition of50 states and territories announcing two significant cooperation agreementsand settlements with Heritage Pharmaceuticals and Apotex totaling $49.1 million to resolve allegations that both companies engaged in widespread,long-running conspiracies to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reducecompetition, and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to numerous genericprescription drugs.
“Generic drugs are supposed to be a more affordable alternative, and throughthis litigation and these settlements, we are holding the companies that keptprices artificially high accountable for taking advantage of struggling families,"said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. "My office is committed to takingaction to lower your drug costs and we encourage any Mississippian who thinksthey may be eligible to register.
"If you purchased a generic prescription drug from either Heritage or Apotexbetween 2010 and 2018, you may be eligible for compensation. To determineyour eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182, email info@AGGenericDrugs.com orvisit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.As part of their settlement agreements, both companies have agreed tocooperate in the ongoing multistate litigations, in which Mississippi isparticipating, against 30 corporate defendants and 25 individual executives.Both companies have further agreed to a series of internal reforms to ensurefair competition and compliance with antitrust laws.A motion for preliminary approval of the $10 million settlement with Heritagewas filed in the United States District Court for the District ofConnecticut in Hartford.
A settlement with Apotex for $39.1 million iscontingent upon obtaining signatures from all necessary states and territoriesand will be finalized and filed in the U.S. District Court in the near future. The.settlements come as the states prepare for the first trial in the continuinglawsuits to be held in Hartford, Connecticut.The cases all stem from a series of investigations built on evidence from severalcooperating witnesses at the core of the different conspiracies, a massivedocument database of over 20 million documents, and a phone recordsdatabase containing millions of call detail records and contact information forover 600 sales and pricing individuals in the generics industry. Each complaintaddresses a different set of drugs and defendants, and lays out aninterconnected web of industry executives where these competitors met witheach other during industry dinners, "girls nights out," lunches, cocktail parties,and golf outings, and communicated via frequent telephone calls, emails andtext messages that sowed the seeds for their illegal agreements. Throughout thecomplaints, defendants use terms like "fair share," "playing nice in thesandbox," and "responsible competitor" to describe how they unlawfullydiscouraged competition, raised prices and enforced an ingrained culture ofcollusion.In addition to Mississippi, attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, California,Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia,Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland,Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada,New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, NorthDakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania,Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, U.S. VirginIslands, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming,and Puerto Rico joined in announcement.
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