Ranbaxy, Teva to pay $15,000 each to settle US anti-trust case

The US units of generic drug firms Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd have agreed to pay a total of $30,000 to the state of New York to settle claims that an agreement between the two drug makers unlawfully restricted competition.

In the agreement signed with the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the two companies neither admitted nor refuted the allegations, but agreed to pay $15,000 each to the state of New York and refrain from similar agreements in the future.

Under the terms of the settlement, the two generic drug makers will end a 2010 agreement of not challenging each other's rights to sell certain drugs exclusively in the United States.

"Agreements between drug manufacturers to protect each other's market positions violate fundamental principles of antitrust law, and can lead to higher drug prices," the attorney general said in a statement.

Schneiderman said that this case is part of recent litigation between brand name and generic pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The settlement ends an anti-trust probe into a 2010 agreement between the companies to sell a generic version of Pfizer Inc's cholesterol drug Lipitor in the United States, while not challenging each other's exclusivity rights on other generic drugs.

The agreement allowed Israel's Teva to sell the generic Lipitor, or atorvastatin calcium, in case Ranbaxy's version was not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration before Lipitor lost its patent protection on 30 November 2011.

"Agreements between drug manufacturers to protect each other's market positions violate fundamental principles of antitrust law, and can lead to higher drug prices," Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement.

The attorney general's office, however, said that it had not identified any anti-competitive effects due to the agreement during its investigation.