Sun Pharmaceutical and its Taro Pharmaceutical subsidiary are washing their hands of another segment of a years-long antitrust debacle with a $200 million settlement.
The deal will clear all claims brought against the companies and affiliated parties by end purchasers in the multidistrict generics pricing antitrust litigation that is playing out in a Pennsylvania court.
The agreement was made “without admission of any wrongdoing” and is subject to court approval, Sun disclosed in a filing (PDF). The $200 million may be reduced if more than a certain percentage of the total class members involved opt out, the company noted.
Sun and Taro previously shelled out $85 million together to address claims made by the direct purchasers class in 2022, with Taro agreeing to pay $67.6 million and Sun offering the remaining $17.4 million in 2022. The next year, Sun forked over $75 million in a separate payout. That settlement was made after a judge denied motions from Sun and Taro, plus other companies attempting to dismiss the claims.
Since then, many other generic drugmakers have stepped forward with their own multi-million dollar settlements, including Sandoz and Apotex, while seven companies further admitted to criminal wrongdoing in the matter. Taro, for its part, agreed in 2020 to pay a total of $419 million in exchange for the U.S. Department of Justice waiving prosecution on two criminal conspiracy charges.
The multidistrict litigation in Pennsylvania groups together more than 20 separate lawsuits that date back to 2016. Currently, more than 18 generic drugs are at issue in the case, and claims by 40 states were recently added to the scope of the trial as well, according to the court.
Generic drugmakers such as Sun and Taro were accused of engaging in a conspiracy that brought up the price of generic drugs starting in 2012. In 2019, when 44 states pointed fingers at 20 companies and several of their executives for what Connecticut Attorney General William Tong called at the time the "largest cartel case in the history of the United States,” Teva was said to be at the center of the conspiracy while others reaped the rewards.
The first lawsuit was filed in 2016, which the former Connecticut Attorney General called the “tip of the iceberg” at the time. To this day, other impacted parties are joining the rally with their own complaints against the generic drugmakers.
Earlier this month, Southwest Airlines accused dozens of companies of causing “substantial injury” to its business by fixing the price of their generic medicines and causing prices to spike for more than 1,200 products by “illegally allocating” markets and customers in an “industry-wide” conspiracy. Other large employers, such as American Airlines and Target, have also sued the group.