Exclusive peak at a price-fixing lawsuit

Several states have alleged that generic drug makers schemed to fix prices for years. But many passages in their lawsuit, which involves 47 states lodging complaints against 17 companies, two executives, and dozens of medicines, have remained redacted. STAT’s Ed Silverman got ahold of an unredacted copy, and writes that the full complaint sheds light on all kinds of examples of alleged price-fixing.

For (egregious) example, former Heritage Pharmaceuticals president Jason Malek allegedly accused an employee to contact a competitor, Dr. Reddy’s laboratories:

“Would like you to have a call with (J.A., Vice President, Sales & Marketing at Dr. Reddy’s), on Zoledronic (the generic name). Right now, only us and DRL have a tentative on the 5mg (version). Need to know if he’s going to be there day one and see if he’s willing to discuss strategy at all. This is huge right now if it’s only a two player market and we need to lock in our strategy.”