Attorney General Ford Announces $29.6 Million Settlement with Glenmark over Conspiracy to Inflate Prices and Limit Competition Regarding Generic Drugs

Nevadans Who Bought Certain Generic Prescription Drugs Between May 1, 2009 and Dec. 31, 2019 Could be Eligible for Money

Carson City, NV - Today, Attorney General Aaron D. Ford announced a $29.6 million settlement with Glenmark to resolve allegations that the generic drug manufacturer engaged in a widespread, long-running conspiracy to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to more than 100 generic prescription drugs. Many of these medications are used to treat a wide variety of medical conditions that affect millions, including asthma, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, mental health disorders, cancer, infections, allergies, skin conditions and diabetes. As part of this settlement agreement announced by Attorney General Ford and 47 other states and territories, Glenmark will cooperate in the ongoing multistate litigation against 33 corporate defendants and 25 individual executives. The company has further agreed to a series of internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws.

"These companies preyed on Nevadans who depend on affordable generic drugs to survive and expected never to be held accountable. They were wrong," said Attorney General Ford. "Companies who conspire and scheme to manipulate prices and restrict fair trade will never be tolerated in Nevada. I encourage all Nevadans to check and see if they are eligible for compensation."

Impacted Nevada agencies will receive about $41,000, while more than $13,000,000 will be placed into a consumer restitution fund. Nevadans who purchased a generic prescription drug manufactured by either Glenmark, Lannett, Bausch, Apotex or Heritage between May 2009 and December 2019 may be eligible for compensation. To determine eligibility, Nevadans should call 1-866-290-0182 (Toll-Free); email [email protected]; or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.

The Glenmark settlement follows settlements with Lannett, Bausch, Apotex and Heritage totaling $66.95 million.

Attorney General Ford is part of a coalition of nearly all states and territories in a series of antitrust cases that first started 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 21 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. Seven additional pharmaceutical executives have been cooperating to support the states' claims.

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. Each complaint addresses a different set of drugs and defendants and lays out an interconnected web of competing industry executives that met with each other during industry dinners; "girls' nights out;" lunches; cocktail parties; golf outings and communications via frequent telephone calls, emails and text messages that sowed the seeds for their illegal agreements. 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.

In addition to Nevada, states and territories settling today with Glenmark include Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, 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.

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