Pharma company Sandoz named in US price-fixing lawsuit
Sandoz split from Novartis in 2003 and now has annual sales in excess of $10 billion.
Keystone / Martin Ruetschi
The Germany-based subsidiary of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis is one of 20 companies in the United States targeted in a 44-state class action suit for breaching rules on fair competition.
This content was published on
1 minute
SDA-Keystone/ac
The names of the companies were revealed on SundayExternal link by Connecticut Attorney General William Tong. The lawsuit accuses the companies of inflating the prices of more than 100 different drugs.
“Sandoz’s name appears in a court case, which concerns virtually the entire pharmaceutical generics industry,” Novartis told the Swiss news agency AWP. According to the Basel-based parent company, the accusations are unfounded and will be contested vigorously.
The American prosecutor mentioned that “Teva, Sandoz, Mylan, Pfizer and 16 other generic producers” are accused of conspiring among themselves to set prices, allocate markets and distort offers of more than 100 generic products. In some cases, the price of some substances increased more than tenfold. In addition to Sandoz, a former vice president at the company, Armando Kellum, was named as an individual defendant in the case.
“We have hard evidence that shows the generic drug industry perpetrated a multi-billion-dollar fraud on the American people,” said Tong. “We have emails, text messages, telephone records, and former company insiders that we believe will prove a multi-year conspiracy to fix prices and divide market share for huge numbers of generic drugs.
Popular Stories
More
Swiss Politics
Swiss reject plans for bigger motorways and extra rights for landlords
Should raw milk sales be banned or should consumers decide?
Swiss food regulations do not allow raw milk to be sold for direct consumption. However, a loophole allows 400 raw milk vending machines to do just that.
Swiss national among five survivors rescued after tourist yacht sank in Egypt’s Red Sea
This content was published on
Egyptian naval forces rescued five people on Tuesday, including a Swiss citizen, and recovered four bodies, a day after a tourist yacht carrying 44 passengers sank in the Red Sea.
Swiss authorities complete 75% of foreign criminal expulsion orders
This content was published on
Swiss courts ordered the expulsion of 2,250 foreign offenders in 2023. By mid-2024, around 73% of them had left Switzerland, either voluntarily or under police escort.
Initiative launched for tougher environmental rules for Swiss financial industry
This content was published on
An alliance of political parties and business and environmental groups has launched a people's initiative calling for stricter environmental rules for the Swiss finance sector.
Explosion at Geneva apartment building leaves young girl seriously injured
This content was published on
A young girl was seriously injured on November 25 after an explosion in an apartment building in the Grange-Canal district of Geneva, the Office of the Attorney General of Geneva has confirmed.
Thawing permafrost threatens dozens of mountain huts in Switzerland
This content was published on
Over one-third of Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) mountain huts could be unstable in the future due to thawing permafrost, according to a study.
Swiss study finds language distorts ChatGPT information on armed conflicts
This content was published on
Millions of people engage with and seek information from ChatGPT and other large language models. But how are the responses given by these models shaped by the language in which they are asked?
This content was published on
The Swiss public has named the robin as Bird of the Year 2025. With its familiar red breast and distinctive song, the robin is one of the most common bird species in Switzerland, found in gardens and forests.
Authorities underestimated severe weather risks in southern Switzerland
This content was published on
Violent storms hit the Misox valley in southern Switzerland in June, causing severe damage and two fatalities. New analysis, presented on Monday, shows that authorities underestimated some of the dangers.
Switzerland and Italy announce closer police and migration cooperation
This content was published on
Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi and his Swiss counterpart, Beat Jans, met in the border town of Chiasso in southern Switzerland on Monday.
This content was published on
Geneva police carried out a major operation in the east of the city on Monday, following reports that a parcel bomb had exploded in an apartment building and injured one person.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.