The Department of Justice announced three pharmaceutical manufacturers, Taro Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., Sandoz Inc. and Apotex Corporation, have agreed to pay a total of $447.2 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act arising from conspiracies to fix the price of various generic drugs. These conspiracies allegedly resulted in higher drug prices for federal health care programs and beneficiaries according to the Justice Department.
Copies of the civil Settlement Agreements can be found here: (1) Sandoz Executed Settlement Agreement; (2) Apotex Executed Settlement Agreement; and (3) Taro Executed Settlement Agreement. The Settlement Agreements are not an admission of liability, nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well founded.
According the allegations of the United States, these pharmaceutical manufacturers paid and received compensation prohibited by the Anti-Kickback Statute through arrangements on price, supply and allocation of customers with other pharmaceutical manufacturers for certain generic drugs manufactured by the companies.
In connection with the civil Settlement Agreements, the pharmaceutical manufacturers each entered into five-year corporate integrity agreements (CIA) with the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS-OIG).