Trump's Department of Justice (DOJ) is readying to charge Teva for criminal behavior as part of a massive price-fixing probe following the drug giant's rejection of an earlier DOJ settlement offer – meaning the company is not willing to cooperate with prosecutors and is still alleging innocence.
News of the probe, which was partially kept under wraps up until this point, immediately caused Teva's shares to plummet by six percent. They reportedly "recovered somewhat" not long after that.
The investigation first went public last month after a Philadelphia judge ruled that Teva's would be the first of many trials to advance in a multi-district case alleging industry-wide – meaning all pharmaceutical companies are potentially doing it – conspiracy to fix generic drug prices, preventing them from becoming naturally more affordable based on increased market availability.
The probe corresponds with another that is likewise pursuing a drug industry scheme to fix the prices of three specific drugs – clobetasol, clomipramine and pravastatin. The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) is further pursuing its own case into drug industry price-fixing, which as you can see is clearly a prolific problem with Big Pharma.
We have known since at least 2014 that Teva in particular has been engaging in a conspiracy to keep affordable generic drugs off the market entirely, including generic alternatives to the testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) drug AndroGel.
An FTC (Federal Trade Commission) complaint from that same year alleged that Teva, along with AbbVie and Besins Healthcare, conspired to prevent the market release of AndroGel generics, even though the male-enhancing drug has been off-patent for many years now.
Is this just another pre-election ploy, or is Trump actually following through on his word?
There have been so many lawsuits filed with regards to drug industry price-fixing in recent days that several of them have more recently been consolidated into a handful of fewer actions. There are also several antitrust suits that have been filed by healthcare companies which, in addition to consumers, are also being negatively impacted by drug industry price-fixing.
The multi-district lawsuit (MDL), as they are calling it, includes these antitrust cases, as well as enforcement actions filed by state attorneys general and various proposed class actions filed on behalf of wholesalers that have been purchasing presumably overpriced drugs directly from Teva.
Teva, an Israeli corporation with a U.S. headquarters in New Jersey, is currently one of the world's 15 largest pharmaceutical companies, which makes these developments even more substantial. If this particular company can be brought down through legal action, in other words, then many others like it could soon follow.
Teva is also the world's largest generic drug maker, manufacturing a bulk of the generic drugs currently on the market. This suggests that the drug giant might just be the head of the snake, so to speak, playing a substantial role in industry-wide price-fixing.
Responding to the news, various online commenters expressed glee that President Trump finally appears to be following through with this necessary rebuff of drug industry corruption.
"Trump is starting to help the ordinary people," wrote one Zero Hedge commenter, contrasting the action with Trump's predecessor. "Obama would give stimulus to this company."
"And yet nothing will be done about the non-generic market, with its revolving door between Big Pharma and the FDA," wrote another, touching on a problem that we, too, have been sounding the alarm about for many, many years.
For more related news about the criminal activity of Big Pharma, be sure to check out BigPharmaNews.com
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