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    Home > Medical News > Latest Medical News > Weigh! Former Novartis Sanders executive convicted of changing generic prices

    Weigh! Former Novartis Sanders executive convicted of changing generic prices

    • Last Update: 2020-04-03
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    Recently, the US Department of Justice announced on its website that a former senior executive of a large generic drug company pleaded guilty to his plan and participation in "modifying drug prices, manipulating bids and distributing generic customers" According to Reuters and Bloomberg, the executive, Hector Armando kellum, who oversees generic drug prices and contracts at Sandoz, a non patent division of Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company Prosecutors confirmed in a press release that kellum could face 10 years in prison and a $1 million personal fine If the loss of proceeds of crime or victims of crime is more than $1 million, the maximum fine may be increased to twice the amount of proceeds of crime or victims' loss Kellum admitted conspiracy with other pharmaceutical company executives and manipulated a range of generic drug pricing from March 2013 to June 2015 The products affected include (but not limited to) the use of steroid drugs, chloroquat asso (clobetasol) and antifungal drug Such Ann Ned nystatin (triamcinolone cream) The U.S Department of justice noted that kellum's criminal accomplices included Ara aprahamian, marketing executive of taro pharmaceutical industries, a New York based generic drug company Aprahamian was also charged on February 4, involving two separate charges of price manipulation, price modification of generic drugs and lying to investigators "The conduct described in the plea agreement is a direct violation of our company's values, as well as the policies and training developed at that time." "We will continue to work with the government to investigate," Novartis spokeswoman Jamie Bennett told reporters The case is the result of an ongoing federal antitrust investigation led by the U.S Antitrust department The antitrust department is assisted by the U.S Attorney General's office, the FBI's Washington field office and other departments The term antitrust is most commonly used in antitrust law (also known as antitrust law) In the United States, antitrust law is a collection of federal and state government laws to regulate the behavior and organization of commercial companies and promote competition for the benefit of consumers "In view of this guilty plea, we will continue to prosecute senior executives of pharmaceutical companies who conspire to defraud the most vulnerable elderly consumer groups in the United States by raising the price of important drugs," said Makan delrahim, Assistant Attorney General of the antitrust division of the Department of justice Competition in the healthcare system is the focus of the antitrust department, and eradicating collusion among drug executives is a key priority to keep our market free " Timothy R Slater, director of the FBI's Washington field office, said: "kellum's criminal behavior shows that he is not aware that the purpose of drug sales is to treat patients, rather than to fill his personal purse through collusion in bidding and price manipulation We will not stand by while big companies and powerful executives try to manipulate the rules at the expense of citizens' property The FBI and our partners will continue to fight for the benefits of fierce competition in the drug market for American citizens " It is reported that kellum has agreed to cooperate with the antitrust department to assist in the investigation of antitrust violations in the generic pharmaceutical industry Kellum is the fourth senior executive charged in the investigation and the third to plead guilty The survey, which began five years ago, focused on scrutinizing the behaviour of executives at some of the world's largest generic drugmakers, including mylan and Teva, as well as heritage pharmaceuticals and rising pharmaceuticals, two smaller pharmaceutical companies In 2019, the latter two pharmaceutical companies reached a settlement with the Ministry of justice to postpone the prosecution, heritage paid $7 million in cooperation with the federal government, and rising paid $3 million for the guilty act of delaying the trial of manipulating the price of benazepril HCTZ, a high blood pressure product Kellum's plea confirmed the role of generic giant Sanders in manipulating drug prices, the largest drug company to date involved in the investigation With the expansion of the witness team, more generic drugmakers may appear in the prosecution list In another lawsuit, led by Connecticut, kellum was accused of communicating with executives of companies such as mylan and TIWA about substantial price increases for many products In May 2019, 44 U.S States launched a centralized lawsuit against 20 generic drug manufacturers, which directly resulted in the resignation of former senior vice president of TIWA and chief business officer of North America and three lower level executives In addition to Tyva, the lawsuit also involved Pfizer, mylan, Sandoz, Lupin, glenmark and several other leading generic manufacturers Reference: 1 Former Sandoz executive leads guidance in U.S price fixing probe https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-14/former-sandoz-executive-leads-in-u-s-price-fixing-probe 2 Ex Sandoz executive leads guidance in U.S generic drug price fixing scheme https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/02/15/world/europe/15reuters-usa-generic-alembic.html 3、Former Generic Pharmaceutical Executive Pleads Guilty for Role in Criminal Antitrust Conspiracy https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-generic-pharmaceutical- executive-pleads-guilty-role-criminal-antitrust-conspiracy 4、Former Novartis exec pleads Guility in generic price fixing consortium https://www.ficephama.com/pharma/former-novartis-sandoz-exec-pleads-guility-generic-price-fixing-investment 37 statement: this point of view only represents the author, not the position of yaozhi.com, and you are welcome to add in the message area; if you need to reprint, please be sure to indicate the author and source of the article.
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