Generic drug manufacturers 'most likely the largest cartel in the history of the United States'
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A massive healthcare lawsuit hasn't been getting a great deal of attention but it’s been quietly growing, nonetheless. Almost all the states have joined a complaint against generic prescription drug makers that began with a focus on just two drugs, butGeneric drug manufacturers 'most likely the largest cartel in the history of the United States'
A massive healthcare lawsuit hasn't been getting a great deal of attention but it’s been quietly growing, nonetheless. Almost all the states have joined a complaint against generic prescription drug makers that began with a focus on just two drugs, but has expanded to implicate 16 companies and more than 300 drugs. Joseph Nielsen, an assistant attorney general and antitrust investigator in Connecticut who is leading the charge tells the Washington Post that «This is most likely the largest cartel in the history of the United States.» Last month a federal judge ruled that «more than 1 million emails, cellphone texts and other documents cited as evidence could be shared among all plaintiffs,» ballooning the scope of this probe into how drug manufacturers who are supposed to be providing lower-cost generic drugs are engaged in illegal price-fixing, and cheating American consumers and taxpayers. Since then, some really damning details have emerged, including the «insider lingo» executives used while working out their collusion «over steak dinners, cocktail receptions and rounds of golf.» It's a very clubby world, it turns out, in which the market for generic drugs is called the «sandbox,” and where all the companies are supposed to cooperate to get their »fair share,« meaning spreading the profits out evenly. Not doing so is »trashing the market”—in other words, selling drugs at a price other than what the cartel agreed upon. Generics are supposed to be bringing health care costs down for consumers. That was the intent back in 1984 when Congress wrote the law establishing rules for generics. «It’s particularly ironic since the whole idea of generic drugs was we would get a lower price,» says former Rep. Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who co-wrote the law. «If generic versions are higher than need be through rigged systems, that undercuts the whole idea.» That's exactly what's happening. Read more