AG Jennings Announces Cooperation Agreements and Settlements with Heritage and Apotex totaling $49.1 Million

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Attorney General Kathy Jennings today joined a coalition of 50 states and territories announcing two significant cooperation agreements and settlements with Heritage Pharmaceuticals and Apotex totaling $49.1 million to resolve allegations that both companies engaged in widespread, long-running conspiracies to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to numerous generic prescription drugs. As part of their settlement agreements, both companies have agreed to cooperate in the ongoing multistate litigations against 30 corporate defendants and 25 individual executives. Both companies have further agreed to a series of internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws.

If you purchased a generic prescription drug manufactured by either Heritage or Apotex between 2010 and 2018, you may be eligible for compensation. To determine your eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182 (Toll-Free), email [email protected] or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.

"This settlement addresses serious allegations of price-fixing and market allocation that have unfairly impacted consumers across Delaware and the nation," said Attorney General Jennings. "We are committed to ensuring that essential medications are accessible and affordable for everyone. As we move forward, we will continue to fight forthe rights of consumers."

A motion for preliminary approval of the $10 million settlement with Heritage was filed with the Court October 31, 2024. The $39.1 million Apotex settlement is contingent upon participation by all necessary states and territories and will be filed in the near future.

The settlements come as the states prepare for the first trial to be held in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut. The case arose from a coalition of nearly all states and territories filing three antitrust complaints, starting first in 2016. The first complaint included Heritage and 17 other corporate Defendants, two individual Defendants, and 15 generic drugs. Two former executives from Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Jeffery Glazer and Jason Malek, have since entered into settlement agreements and are cooperating. The second complaint was filed in 2019 against Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 of the nation's largest generic drug manufacturers. The Complaint names 16 individual senior executive Defendants. The third complaint, to be tried first, focuses on 80 topical generic drugs that account for billions of dollars of sales in the United States and names 26 corporate defendants and 10 individual defendants. Six additional pharmaceutical executives have entered into settlement agreements with the States and have been cooperating to support the States' claims in all three cases.

The cases all stem from a series of investigations built on evidence from several cooperating witnesses at the core of the different conspiracies, a massive document database of over 20 million documents, and a phone records database containing millions of call detail records and contact information for over 600 sales and pricing individuals in the generics industry. Each complaint addresses a different set of drugs and defendants, and lays out an interconnected web of industry executives where these competitors met with each other during industry dinners, "girls nights out", lunches, cocktail parties, golf outings and communicated via frequent telephone calls, emails and text messages that sowed the seeds for their illegal agreements. Throughout the complaints, defendants use terms like "fair share," "playing nice in the sandbox," and "responsible competitor" to describe how they unlawfully discouraged competition, raised prices and enforced an ingrained culture of collusion.

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