NEW DELHI : Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd on Friday announced that the US arm of its subsidiary Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd has resolved all cases involving the step-down subsidiary in connection with the multi-year anti-trust investigations into the US generic pharmaceutical industry by reaching agreements worth over $400 million with the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
Under a deferred prosecution agreement reached with the DOJ, the department will charge the company for price-fixing conduct that took place between 2013 and 2015, and Taro Pharmaceuticals USA Inc will have to pay $205.7 million and adhere with other terms of the agreement, after which the DOJ will dismiss the Information at the end of a three-year period.
The company has also agreed to pay $213.3 million to resolve all claims related to federal healthcare programs under a framework understanding with the DOJ’s civil division, subject to final agreement and agency authorization.
The company is discussing a separate Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Office of Inspector General in the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Taro Pharmaceuticals USA was part of five of six companies that were part of the DOJ’s investigation into price fixing, market allocation, bid rigging, and other anticompetitive conduct in the generic pharmaceutical industry.
To date, five of the six companies charged, including Taro and Sandoz Inc, have admitted to their roles in antitrust conspiracies and resolved through deferred prosecution agreement, under which they’ve collectively agreed to pay over $426 million in criminal penalties, the justice department said in a statement.
“Taro Pharmaceuticals USA’s unlawful conspiracies to raise the prices of critical drugs robbed consumers at pharmacy counters across America," assistant attorney general Makan Delrahim of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division was quoted as saying in the statement. “Today’s resolution marks another important step toward ensuring that competitively priced generic drugs are available to the millions of American consumers who rely on them."
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