A small drug maker called Rising Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay more than $3 million to resolve criminal and civil charges related to a price-fixing scheme involving a high blood pressure pill, the second time a company has reached such a deal with federal authorities who are conducting a probe into the generic industry.
From April 2015 until at least September 2015, Rising conspired with another unnamed generic drug maker and its executives to fix prices and allocate customers for Benazepril HCTZ, according to court documents. Effectively, the companies “engaged in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition,” the Department of Justice wrote in a document outlining the charges.
As part of the settlement, Rising entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, which means the company will cooperate with the ongoing investigation into generic price-fixing. Further details were not provided, although other companies — including Mylan (MYL) and the Sandoz unit of Novartis (NVS) — also sell generic versions of the drug.
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