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Teva, Endo and Teikoku pay $70 million settlement to California

pharmafile | July 30, 2019 | News story | Manufacturing and Production  

Three pharmaceutical companies have agreed to pay $70 million to the state of California for keeping drug prices artificially high.

Teva, Endo Pharmaceuticals and Teikoku, will pay $70 million after colluding to delay the entry of generic drugs to the market.

The agreement will see Teva pay a sum of $69 million – the settlement comes as the most valuable pay-for-delay settlement secured by any US state. Teva, Endo and Teikoku will also pay $760,000 in a second settlement between them and the state of California. Teva will also pay California’s $200,000 legal costs.

The settlements come after the three companies colluded to delay generic versions of the narcolepsy drug Provigil and the shingles medication Lidoderm from entering the market. While Provigil’s entry into the market was delayed for six years, Lidoderm’s market entry was delayed for two.

According to a statement from California’s Attorney General, the anticompetitive deals cause consumers to pay as much as 90% more for brand name drugs. More than $25 million of the settlement will go towards a consumer fund for Californians who purchased pay-for-delay drugs between 2006 and 2012.

“No one in America should be forced to skip or ration doses of medicine that they need … and certainly not because a drug company is colluding to keep the price of your drug artificially high even when cheaper options could be available. But that’s what’s happening,” Attorney General Becerra said.

“These dark, illegal, collusive agreements that drug companies devise not only choke off price competition but burden our families and patients—they force every Californian to shoulder higher prices for life-saving medication. It’s nothing less than playing with people’s lives,” he added.

Louis Goss

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