DoJ To Charge Teva In Generic Drug Price-Fixing Probe

As President Trump seeks to take on big pharma in a campaign-year push to burnish his reputation for being tough on drugmakers, rhetoric that was a key part of what differentiated him from other Republicans during the early days of the 2016 primary, even if he hasn’t always delivered, the DoJ is reportedly poised to charge Teva Pharmaceuticals in a generic drug price-fixing probe, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

• U.S. POISED TO CHARGE TEVA IN GENERIC DRUGS PRICE-FIXING PROBE
• TEVA SHARES FALL AS MUCH AS 6% ON DOJ PRICE-FIXING REPORT

The news rattled the pharma giant’s shares, which tumbled 6% to the lows, though it has recovered somewhat.

Teva reportedly rebuffed a settlement offer from the DoJ earlier.

The investigation first became public last month, when a Philadelphia judge ruled that Teva would be the first trial to advance in a multi-district case involving an alleged industry-wide conspiracy to fix generic drug prices. Meanwhile, trials involving schemes to fix the prices of three specific drugs – clobetasol, clomipramine, and pravastatin – will advance along a separate track. While that case involves civil legislation, the FBI is also reportedly carrying out its own price-fixing probe based on the same alleged behavior.

Although the market initially reacted like this was all new information, analysts have likely been closely following the civil litigation – even if the FBI probe has been mostly opaque – which has grown into a tangled mess of cases, all of which have recently been consolidated into fewer actions. Currently, the MDL also involves antitrust suits filed by healthcare companies, enforcement actions filed by almost all state attorneys general, and proposed class actions filed on behalf of the wholesalers who buy the drugs directly from Teva.

Teva, one of the world’s top 15 biggest pharmaceutical companies by market value and sales, has its global headquarters in Israel, and its US headquarters in New Jersey. It’s also known as the world’s biggest generic drug maker, meaning it likely played a critical role in any industry-wide price-fixing.