Maine has joined a lawsuit that accuses the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers of conspiring to artificially inflate and manipulate prices for their products.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Connecticut, names 16 companies and 15 individual senior executives. It covers more than 100 generic drugs that reportedly account for billions of dollars of sales in the United States, including treatments for diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, HIV, ADHD and others.
“Prescription drug costs create significant financial pressures on individuals and families, and there is compelling evidence that the prices for some of these drugs have been artificially inflated,” Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a written statement. “By joining this multistate litigation, Maine is cooperating with other states to hold generic drug manufacturers accountable for the outrageous behavior outlined in the complaint.”
Among the corporate defendants are Teva, Sandoz, Mylan and Pfizer. More than 40 states have joined the lawsuit, which seeks damages and court action to restore competition to the market.
The lead plaintiff is Connecticut, where the attorney general has been investigating drug prices and the high cost of health care. This is the second lawsuit to come from that investigation. Filed in 2016, the first is still pending in federal court in Pennsylvania. Two former executives in that case have entered into settlement agreements, according to a statement from the Maine Attorney General’s Office.
The Associated Press reported that a spokesman for Teva said the pharmaceuticals company hasn’t engaged in any conduct that would lead to civil or criminal liability.
“The allegations in this new complaint, and in the litigation more generally, are just that – allegations,” Kelley Dougherty, a Teva vice president, said in a statement Saturday. “The company delivers high-quality medicines to patients around the world and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations in doing so.”
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