Coalition Seeks Court Approval for Settlement With Ascend, Citron, and Mayne Pharma Over Conspiracy to Inflate Generic Drug Prices

Attorney General Charity Clark today joined a coalition of 45 states and territories seeking court approval of three settlements with Ascend Laboratories, Citron Pharma and Mayne Pharma to resolve allegations that the generic drug manufacturers engaged in a widespread, long-running conspiracy to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to numerous generic prescription drugs.

Under the settlement agreement, Ascend will pay $400,000 to the states and Mayne will pay $650,000. Citron's settlement only includes non-monetary terms as it has ceased business operations. The companies each agreed to meaningful injunctive terms including a series of internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws.

The States previously reached settlements with generic drug companies Sandoz, Glenmark, Lannett, Bausch, Apotex and Heritage, and Heritage's parent company, Emcure, totaling $496.5 million in restitution and monetary relief.

If you purchased a generic prescription drug between May 2009 and December 2019, you may be eligible for compensation. To determine your eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182 (Toll-Free), email [email protected] or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com. You can submit a claim for compensation here.

Connecticut is leading a coalition of nearly all states and territories engaged in a series of antitrust cases, 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. 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. The States filed a fourth complaint earlier this year, alleging that Novartis AG, Sandoz Group AG and Sandoz AG, are liable for Sandoz's alleged conduct and for fraudulently transferring assets.

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 crafted these illegal agreements.

States and territories joining the settlements include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.