Press Release

Attorney General Ellison joins motion to unseal generic drug price-fixing complaint

Marks latest step in second case against ‘largest cartel in history’

June 7, 2019 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has joined a 44-state coalition, led by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, in a motion to unseal their complaint against Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 of the nation's largest generic drug manufacturers. The complaint, filed on May 10 in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, alleges a broad conspiracy to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade on more than 100 different generic drugs that treat cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, anxiety, high blood pressure, bacterial infections, HIV, and other conditions. It was initially filed under seal.

“Minnesotans should get to read every word of how greed drove these companies to make it hard for people to afford their lives, and even live,” Attorney General Ellison said. “Minnesotans deserve, with the court’s permission, to get the full picture of this alleged widespread conspiracy to illegally allocate markets and fix drug prices.”

This is the second lawsuit against generics manufacturers resulting from the expanded investigation in which Minnesota is also a plaintiff. The first suit similarly alleges that 18 generics manufacturers conspired to illegally fix prices and allocate markets as part of what has been called “most likely the largest cartel in the history of the United States.” The first complaint was similarly filed under seal initially, and later released in full with permission from the court.