Apotex Settlement Resolves Conspiracy to Inflate Drug Prices and Limit Competition

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TRENTON – Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin is urging consumers to check their eligibility for compensation for certain generic drug purchases as New Jersey joins 50 states and territories in seeking preliminary approval for a $39.1 million settlement with generic drug manufacturer Apotex over conspiracy to inflate prices and limit competition.

Attorney General Platkin and the multistate coalition previously announced the settlement in principle with Apotex last fall, along with a $10 million settlement with Heritage Pharmaceuticals. At the time of that announcement, the settlement with Apotex was conditioned on the signatures of all necessary states and territories. Those signatures have been obtained, and the coalition is filing a motion for preliminary approval of the Apotex settlement today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut in Hartford.

If you purchased a generic prescription drug listed here between May 2009 and December 2019, you may be eligible for compensation. To determine your eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182 (toll-free), email info@AGGenericDrugs.com, or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.

The settlement agreements resolve allegations that both Apotex and Heritage engaged in widespread, long-running conspiracies to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to numerous generic prescription drugs. As part of the settlement agreements, both Apotex and Heritage have agreed to cooperate in the ongoing multistate litigations against 30 corporate defendants and 25 individual executives. Both companies have further agreed to injunctive relief to prevent future misconduct and to a series of internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws.

New Jersey is among a coalition of nearly all states and territories filing three antitrust complaints, starting first in 2016. The first complaint included Heritage and 17 other corporate defendants, two individual defendants, and 15 generic drugs.

Two former executives from Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Jeffery Glazer and Jason Malek, have since entered into settlement agreements and are cooperating.

The second complaint 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 third complaint, to be tried first, focuses on 80 topical generic drugs that account for billions of dollars of sales in the United States and names 26 corporate defendants and 10 individual defendants. Six additional pharmaceutical executives have entered into settlement agreements with the States and have been cooperating to support the States’ claims in all three cases.

The cases all stem from a series of investigations built on evidence from several cooperating witnesses at the core of the different conspiracies, 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.

The complaints lay out an interconnected web of industry executives where these competitors met during industry dinners, lunches, cocktail parties, and golf outings, frequently communicating through telephone calls, emails, and text messages.

In one such exchange, a group email discussion of a steakhouse dinner provides a window into the high living that typically accompanied such outings. One executive asked if his and his colleagues’ meals would be paid for by a rival executive’s company. The rival executive responded: “It’s amazing how many in the group like 18-year-old single malt scotch when they aren’t buying.”

Throughout the complaints, defendants use 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.

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.

Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Puerto Rico joined in today’s announcement

Deputy Attorney General Yale A. Leber in the Antitrust Litigation and Competition Enforcement Section within the Division of Law’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement Practice Group is representing New Jersey in this matter under the supervision of Assistant Attorney General Brian F. McDonough.

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