Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has announced a significant legal development in the state’s sweeping antitrust case against major generic drug manufacturers. In a major win for Connecticut-led litigation, U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea denied a motion for summary judgment filed by drugmakers seeking to dismiss core claims related to an alleged price-fixing conspiracy.

Connecticut is leading a multistate coalition in three lawsuits alleging that dozens of manufacturers and executives conspired to artificially inflate prices and limit competition for over 100 generic drugs, including 80 topical medications named in the first trial.

The litigation alleges that the price-fixing schemes had widespread impact on the health care system, increasing costs for Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and out-of-pocket expenses for patients relying on generic medications. Judge Shea wrote that “[t]he States … marshaled a substantial bulk of evidence to support [their] allegations,” and that “a reasonable juror could infer that sharing information with competitors, providing assurances that a generic drug maker would follow price increases, and refraining from poaching customers were widespread practices in the markets for the Drugs at Issue.”

Attorney General Tong stated: “The drugmakers have sought to chip away at our case piece by piece, but this latest ruling preserves our claims and reflects the strength of our case heading into the first trial in Connecticut. Generic drug manufacturers engaged in a brazen, industrywide conspiracy to fix prices and allocate market share for medicines we rely on every day. Our case seeks to hold them accountable and restore fairness to this broken system.”

Residents who may have purchased certain generic prescription drugs between May 2009 and December 2019 may be eligible for compensation. To determine eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182 (Toll-Free), email [email protected] or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.