The generic drug maker Teva Pharmaceuticals has agreed to pay $225 million to settle charges of price-fixing related to the sales of a cholesterol-lowering drug. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that as part of the agreement, Teva will also have to divest its business that manufactures and sells the generic version of the drug, called pravastatin. This drug is a generic version of the brand-name medication Pravachol.
Another generic drug company, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, has also agreed to pay a $30 million criminal penalty and divest its pravastatin business.
In a statement, Teva’s U.S. arm blamed a former employee for making agreements with Teva’s competitors that limited competition between 2013 and 2015. Teva stated that the employee had left the company in 2016.
The DOJ had charged seven generic drug makers, including Teva and Glenmark, with price-fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation schemes. All seven companies have settled their cases with deferred prosecution agreements. If any of the cases had gone to trial and resulted in guilty verdicts, the companies could have faced mandatory bans from participating in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health programs.
Collectively, the companies have agreed to pay $681 million in fines along with other penalties.
