Drug giants Mylan, Teva accused of obstructing Congress

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I- Vt., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, DMd., are opening an investigation into generic drug giants Mylan and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries on allegations of “apparent coordinated obstruction” in failing to provide lawmakers with details about their pricing practices.

Mr. Sanders, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president, and Mr. Cummings sent letters to Teva and Mylan as well as closely held Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc.

The letters renewed a 2014 request for the companies to provide documents related to charges of generic drug pricefixing.

The two companies have been at the center of state and federal probes into allegations that generic drug companies coordinated with one another on setting prices for a range of widely used medications.

Lawsuits filed by state attorneys general in 2016 and this year allege a conspiracy among 20 drugmakers to carve up the market and raise prices of more than 100 drugs including commonly prescribed antibiotics as well as medications for reducing cholesterol and controlling seizures.

Those actions, authorities allege, cost taxpayers and patients billions of dollars. The prices of some drugs increased by as much as 8,281% between October 2013 and April 2014, according to the lawmakers’ letter made public on Wednesday.

The most recent lawsuit included emails from 2014 in which executives at Teva, Mylan and Heritage planned to respond to congressional inquiries with “polite f- u” letters.

“Not only did your company’s apparent obstruction undermine our investigation, but it may have caused further harm to patients and health care providers by delaying the discovery of evidence about the companies’ price- fixing,” Mr. Sanders and Mr. Cummings wrote to the companies on Tuesday.

They said withholding or concealing information in a congressional investigation is a violation of federal law.

Teva spokeswoman Kelley Dougherty said the company “continues to cooperate fully with all investigations.”

Mylan, which recently announced plans to combine its business with Pfizer Inc.’ s unit of older blockbuster medicines, said in a statement that it did not obstruct the 2014 congressional inquiry, and “will continue to cooperate” with investigations.

“Mylan respects Congress’ longstanding interest in drug pricing and has worked and will continue to work constructively with Congress to provide it with information relevant to its inquiries,” the company said in a

statement.

A representative for Pfizer declined to comment. The companies have said they expect their deal to close in mid- 2020.

Mylan’s administrative offices in Cecil and a pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Morgantown, W. Va., have a combined employment of about 3,200 people.

A representative for Heritage couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The renewed investigation into the drugmakers comes as a federal probe into the generics industry has hit significant obstacles. Over the course of a multiyear Justice Department investigation, only two executives from Heritage Pharmaceuticals have been charged.

Both pleaded guilty more than two years ago.