Attorney General Tong Announces Development in Generic Drug Price-Fixing Case

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12/04/2025

Attorney General Tong Announces Development in Generic Drug Price-Fixing Case

(Hartford, CT) -- Attorney General William Tong today announced a significant development in one of the ongoing generic drug price-fixing cases, sharing that U.S. District Judge Shea Michael P. Shea dismissed a motion for summary judgment filed by the drugmakers seeking to toss key elements of the case.

Connecticut is leading a coalition of nearly all states and territories in three antitrust lawsuits. The first Complaint, filed in 2016, included Heritage and 17 other corporate Defendants, two individual Defendants, and 15 generic drugs. 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.

The cases each allege drug-specific as well as broad conspiracies to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition and unreasonably restrain trade of generic drugs accounting for billions of dollars of sales in the United States. The alleged schemes increased prices affecting the health insurance market, taxpayer-funded healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and individuals who must pay inflated prices for their prescription drugs.

In this motion, defendants in the third (dermatological) case filed a joint motion for summary judgment, asking the court to dismiss core claims related to the overarching conspiracy that connects the drugs and defendants in question and establishes joint and several liability for each of the individual drug conspiracy claims.

In denying the drugmakers motion, Judge Shea found that "[t]he States … marshaled a substantial bulk of evidence to support [their] allegations," and that "a reasonable juror could infer that sharing information with competitors, providing assurances that a generic drug maker would follow price increases, and refraining from poaching customers were widespread practices in the markets for the Drugs at Issue."

"The drugmakers have sought to chip away at our case piece by piece, but this latest ruling preserves our claims and reflects the strength of our case heading into the first trial in Connecticut. Generic drug manufacturers engaged in a brazen, industrywide conspiracy to fix prices and allocate market share for medicines we rely on every day. Our case seeks to hold them accountable and restore fairness to this broken system," said Attorney General Tong.

Connecticut and the multistate coalition have reached a series of settlements with executives and companies now cooperating to support the States' claims. Seven pharmaceutical executives have entered into settlement agreements, as well as Apotex and Heritage, who paid $39.1 million and $10 million respectively.
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 [email protected] or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.

Assistant Attorney General Cara Moody co-led the multistate coalition drafting the state's defense and at oral argument, with assistance from AAGs Alex Frisbee, Kyle Ainsworth, and Rose Levine and Paralegal Specialist Gaile Colaresi, under the supervision of Deputy Associate Attorney General Nicole Demers, Chief of the Antitrust Section.

Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton [email protected]

Consumer Inquiries:

860-808-5318 [email protected]

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