Attorney General Jones Announces Major Legal Actions to Hold Pharmaceutical Companies Accountable and Put Money Back in Virginians’ Pockets

Attorney General Jones Announces Major Legal Actions to Hold Pharmaceutical Companies Accountable and Put Money Back in Virginians’ Pockets

AG Jones announces settlements with Lannett and Bausch Totaling $17.85 Million Over Conspiracies to Inflate Prices and Limit Competition

AG Jones Joins Multistate Coalition Filing New Complaint Against Novartis for Artificially Raising Cost of Life-Saving Prescriptions

Richmond, VA - Attorney General Jay Jones today alongside a coalition of 48 states and territories announced two settlements with Lannett Company, Inc. (“Lannett”) and Bausch Health US, LLC and Bausch Health Americas, Inc. (“Bausch”), totaling $17.85 million. The settlement is the result of founded allegations that both companies engaged in widespread, long-running conspiracies to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to numerous generic prescription drugs.  As part of their settlement agreements, both companies have agreed to cooperate in additional ongoing multistate litigation led by Connecticut against 30 corporate defendants and 25 individual executives. Both companies have further agreed to a series of internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws. 

The Lannett and Bausch settlements follow prior settlements with Apotex and Heritage which totaled $49.1 million, and come as states prepare for the first trial connected to three antitrust complaints pending in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, which is anticipated to be scheduled in late 2026.

If you purchased a generic prescription drug manufactured by either Lannett or Bausch between May 2009 and December 2019, you may be eligible for compensation. To determine your eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182 (Toll-Free), email info@AGGenericDrugs.com or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.

Also today, 42 states and territories filed a new lawsuit against Novartis and its former subsidiaries Sandoz Group AG and Sandoz AG alleging a systemic campaign to conspire with other generic manufacturers to fix prices, allocate markets, and rig bids for 31 different generic drugs. The complaint further alleges that Novartis took steps to fraudulently transfer and drain assets from Sandoz, Inc., a defendant in the three previously filed state antitrust complaints, and spin off Sandoz, Inc. to shield Novartis from liability. 

“Rising costs are hitting Virginians hard in every corner of the Commonwealth, and families are having to make difficult choices between taking their life-saving medications, buying groceries, and paying their rent. All the while, unscrupulous pharmaceutical companies are scheming in what is an egregious display of greed,” Attorney General Jones said. “Virginia will hold bad actors accountable when they hurt our families and our communities. My office will continue to use every legal tool available to us to protect Virginians and keep costs low.”

Connecticut’s Attorney General Office is leading a coalition of nearly all states and territories in three antitrust cases, starting first in 2016 under the leadership of then-Attorney General George Jepsen. The first Complaint 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. Seven additional pharmaceutical executives have entered into settlement agreements with the States and have been cooperating to support the States’ claims in all three cases.  

The cases all stem from a series of investigations built on evidence from 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 industry executives where these competitors met with each other during industry dinners, "girls nights out", lunches, cocktail parties, golf outings and communicated 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.

States and territories settling today with Lannett and Bausch 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, Nevada, 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.

States and territories filing the new complaint against Novartis and Sandoz include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New  York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Viginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

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