The U.S. subsidiary of India-based drugmaker Glenmark Pharmaceuticals has agreed to pay $25 million to resolve its alleged liability under the False Claims Act for conspiring to fix the price of a generic cholesterol drug.
The allegations relate to Glenmark's generic pravastatin, which is widely used to treat high cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Glenmark got the green light to sell pravastatin sodium oral tablets, a generic version of Bristol Myers Squibb's Pravachol, in 2007.
The U.S. government alleged that, between 2013 and 2015, Glenmark paid and received compensation prohibited by the Anti-Kickback Statute through arrangements on price, supply and allocation of customers with Teva Pharmaceuticals, Apotex Corp. and others.
Glenmark previously entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division to resolve related criminal charges, paying a criminal penalty of $30 million and admitting to conspiring with two other generic drug companies to fix prices on pravastatin. Teva got hit hardests in the criminal case, agreeing to make a $50 million drug donation to humanitarian organizations and pay a $225 million criminal penalty.
The recent civil settlement payment is in addition to this criminal penalty. According to the settlement, the agreement "is neither an admission of liability by Glenmark nor a concession by the United States that its claims are not well founded."
