Federal Lawsuit Alleges Teva Pharmaceuticals Conspired To Block Access To Generic Drugs

Teva Pharmaceuticals Blocked Access To Generic Drugs: A federal lawsuit filed on December 2, 2022 in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas alleges, in part, as follows:

“This case seeks to hold Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd., Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., Teva Parenteral Medicines, Inc., Teva Neuroscience, Inc., Cephalon, Inc., Teva Sales & Marketing, Inc., and William S. Marth (collectively, “Defendants” or “Teva”) accountable for participating in a scheme to improperly block access to two different generic
pharmaceutical products: the generic versions of the EpiPen (a life-saving drug/device combination for severe allergic reactions) and Nuvigil (a wakefulness medicine). As a result, Teva enriched itself at the literal expense of American consumers who overpaid by hundreds of millions of dollars for these medications.

Teva worked in secret to sign deals with two other pharmaceutical manufacturers, Mylan and Pfizer, that foreclosed generic competition to both the EpiPen and Nuvigil for several years longer than legally allowed. In short, Mylan and Pfizer, on the one hand, and Teva, on the other, agreed to exchange market access for EpiPen and Nuvigil, to protect their respective market shares, and to delay entry of generic competition for their respective branded drugs. By abusing the patent litigation process and conspiring to block generic access, Teva, Mylan, and Pfizer forced purchasers to pay for branded products, when prescriptions should have been filled with less costly generic options. Teva is primarily a generic drug company that publicly claims to champion and promote generic drug access. Standing in stark contrast to these claims, Teva’s secret efforts to block access to generic alternatives to Nuvigil and EpiPen were especially egregious.

As to the schemes to block generic drug access to Nuvigil and the EpiPen, there is little mystery as to what happened: Mylan and Pfizer have already settled a lawsuit filed against them concerning the generic delay scheme for a total of $609 million. See In re EpiPen Marketing, Sales Practices, & Antitrust Litigation, 17-md-2785 (D. Kan.) (“In re EpiPen MDL”). These nine-figure settlements, which occurred after years of discovery and nationwide class certification of
claims for antitrust and RICO violations, confirm the plausibility of the allegations raised in this Complaint against Teva.

But those settlements addressed only the EpiPen, and only Mylan and Pfizer’s roles in the pay-for-delay scheme. This case addresses the other participant in the scheme, Teva, and the other side of the exchange: Nuvigil. This case seeks to complete the puzzle and to hold Teva accountable for its role in delaying generic options both for the EpiPen and Nuvigil …

By reason of their pattern of racketeering activity, Defendants have caused Plaintiffs and the EpiPen and Nuvigil Nationwide Class members injury in their business and/or property, in the form of overcharges for brand drugs that never would have been purchased because of the erosion caused by generic competition. Had generic versions of the EpiPen and Nuvigil launched earlier, as they would have in the but-for world, consumers and payers would have purchased them.”

If you or a loved one suffered injuries (or worse) as a result of a bad drug/defective drug in the United States, you should promptly seek the legal advice of a pharmaceutical claim lawyer in your state who may investigate your drug claim for you and represent you in a claim against a pharmaceutical company, if appropriate.

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