United States District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued an Order and Opinion denying defendants’ joint motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ overarching conspiracy claims. Defendants had sought to dismiss claims contained in direct purchaser plaintiffs’ first amended class action complaint, end payor plaintiffs’ amended class action complaint, plaintiff states’ consolidated amended complaint, indirect reseller plaintiffs’ amended overarching complaint, Kroger plaintiffs’ amended complaint, Marion plaintiffs’ second amended complaint, and Humana Inc.’s second amended complaint. Judge Rufe ruled that plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged the existence of an overarching conspiracy and permitted claims based on this theory to proceed.
case
Generic Drug
Price-Fixing Antitrust Litigation
The Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP represents consumers and insurers in class action lawsuits filed against dozens of generic drug manufacturers who are accused of fixing the prices of dozens of different generic drugs. The defendant drug manufacturers raised the prices for each of these drugs at alarming and unprecedented levels, frequently by more than 1,000 percent. They maintained those high prices for years.
Plaintiffs allege that the companies engineered price hikes, eliminated the benefits of competition, and forced consumers to pay exorbitant prices.
“Generic manufacturers have illegally conspired to dramatically inflate prices for many essential medications,” says Joseph Saveri, counsel for the plaintiffs. “Consumers are being forced to pay unreasonable rates, when generic competition should instead be lowering prices and increasing the availability of prescription drugs.”
Dozens of generic drugs have seen alarming price hikes in recent years, prompting regulatory scrutiny and numerous civil and criminal investigations. In 2016, a generic drug manufacturer reportedly sought leniency from the U.S. government for its role in a generic drug price-fixing conspiracy. Two former pharmaceutical executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges of price-fixing, while the U.S. Attorney General and twenty state attorneys general filed lawsuits alleging price-fixing among generic drug manufacturers.
The cases have been consolidated before United States District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania as part of a broad MDL, In re Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation, which involves private class action suits alleging price-fixing of dozens of drugs by most of the generic drug manufacturers in the United States. The firm represents the Self-Insured Schools of California and the putative end-payor class in this wide-ranging MDL.
In July 2020, the Court selected two bellwether cases for the private Plaintiffs, including the firm's EPP clients, concerning the drugs Clobetasol and Clomipramine. In 2022, the Court denied most of defendants' efforts to dismiss claims.
The firm is currently investigating several other generic drugs for potential class action claims. Contact the firm at (415) 500-6800, or email us if you have purchased generic drugs that may have been impacted by illegal price-fixing.
August 15, 2019
May 19, 2017
United States District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued an Order appointing the Joseph Saveri Law Firm, LLP to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee for end-payor plaintiffs.