Rising Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay more than $3 million to settle claims it conspired to fix prices for a hypertension drug.
The Saddle Brook, N.J.-based generic drugmaker signed a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department for its part in a criminal antitrust conspiracy that took place from April 2014 until at least September 2015.
The Justice Department has been investigating more than a dozen generic drugmakers since 2014, including such big names as Teva Pharmaceuticals, accusing them of price-fixing and dividing up the market to make higher profits, which lawmakers say has cost federal health programs billions of dollars. Rising is the second drugmaker to agree to a deferred prosecution agreement, following Heritage Pharmaceuticals in May.
According to the Justice Department, Rising conspired with other generic drugmakers to exploit patients that rely on the drug, called Benazepril HCTZ, which is supposed to be a low-cost alternative to other blood pressure drugs.
Under the agreement, Rising will pay customers who overpaid for the drug a total of $1,543,207, as well as $1.1 million in to the Justice Department for violating the False Claims Act and $1.5 million in monetary penalty under U.S. sentencing guidelines.
In exchange, the U.S. will defer prosecuting Rising for three years, or until its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings are finalized, whichever is first.
Read the full news release here.
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