BRIEF—US Justice Department warns it may sue generic drugmakers over price-fixing

Some generic drugmakers in the USA have come under modest pressure in apparent response to a speech delivered by US Department of Justice antitrust division chief Makan Delrahim on Friday at George Mason University's law school.

He said the DoJ may sue generic drug companies to recover damages over alleged price-fixing, adding that if taxpayers were overcharged due to collusion to raise prices, then seeking remedies may be appropriate, according to a Bloomberg report,

Mylan dropped as much as 3.1% after the comments and traded down 0.6% to $46.25 at 1:37 pm in New York. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries’ US depositary receipts dropped as much as 2.8% and were down 1.5% to $20.41 and Endo International fell 5.6% to $6.92.

The three drugmakers are among more than a dozen companies targeted by the Justice Department and state attorneys general in a multi-year investigation into generic drug price-fixing.

So far, the probe has led to guilty pleas from two former executives of Heritage Pharmaceuticals, a subsidiary of Emcure, said Bloomberg