In May, morethan 40 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit accusing pharmacompanies of engaging in anti-competitive practices to drive up thecost of generics. (Photo: Shutterstock)
Insurance giant Humana is taking drugmakers to court, alleging aprice-fixing scheme that has driven up costsfor insurers and patients alike.
|Humana is accusing 37 generic drug manufacturers of colluding to set prices, in violation ofantitrust laws.
|"They leveraged the culture of cronyism in the generic drugindustry to avoid price erosion, increase prices for targetedproducts, and maintain artificially inflated prices across theirrespective product portfolios without triggering a 'fight to thebottom' among competitors," Humana claims in its suit, which itfiled last week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Districtof Pennsylvania.
|Related: New details in Big Pharma price-fixing lawsuitsuggest lawyers wrote 'polite f-u letters'
|This echoes a suit Humana filed last year against pharmacompanies for price-fixing. That suit accused 30 drug-makers ofconspiring to not compete against each other through meetings atindustry trade events. That litigation is ongoing.
|There is certainly political appetite to crack down onprice-fixing. In May, more than 40 state attorneys general filed alawsuit accusing pharma companies of engaging in anti-competitivepractices to drive up the cost of generics.
|"The level of corporate greed alleged in this multi-statelawsuit is heartless and unconscionable," Nevada Governor SteveSisolak said at the time.
|The various suits generally accuse drug-makers of unwrittenagreements to divvy up the market to avoid competition that woulddrive down prices.
|If any of these suits succeed in either a judgment against thedrug industry or a settlement, you can expect other plaintiffs topile on, just as they have in the case of opioid litigation. If adrug-maker concedes to engaging in illegal price-fixing, that willmean that individuals, insurers, health care provides and publichealth programs will all have a claim to being ripped off.
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