Drugmakers resolve US legacy investigation on generic drugs

Three generic pharmaceutical manufacturers, Taro Pharmaceuticals USA, Sandoz, the biosimilars and generics business of Novartis (NOVN: VX), and Apotex Corp, have agreed to pay a total of $447.2 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act arising from conspiracies to fix the price of various generic drugs.

These conspiracies allegedly resulted in higher drug prices for federal health care programs and beneficiaries according to the Justice Department.

The government alleges that between 2013 and 2015, all three companies paid and received compensation prohibited by the Anti-Kickback Statute through arrangements on price, supply and allocation of customers with other pharmaceutical manufacturers for certain generic drugs manufactured by the companies.