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Leading drug companies including Teva, Pfizer, Novartis and Mylan conspired to inflate the prices of generic drugs by as much as 1,000 percent, according to a far-reaching lawsuit filed on Friday by 44 states.
The industrywide scheme affected the prices of more than 100 generic drugs, according to the complaint, including lamivudine-zidovudine, which treats H.I.V.; budesonide, an asthma medication; fenofibrate, which treats high cholesterol; amphetamine-dextroamphetamine for A.D.H.D.; oral antibiotics; blood thinners; cancer drugs; contraceptives; and antidepressants.
"We all know that prescription drugs can be expensive," Gurbir S. Grewal, the New Jersey attorney general, said in a statement. "Now we know that high drug prices have been driven in part by an illegal conspiracy among generic drug companies to inflate their prices."
In court documents, the state prosecutors lay out a brazen price-fixing scheme involving more than a dozen generic drug companies and just as many executives responsible for sales, marketing and pricing. The complaint alleges that the conspirators knew their efforts to thwart competition were illegal and that they therefore avoided written records by coordinating instead at industry meals, parties, golf outings and other networking events.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @08:36AM (41 children)
Thanks, looks like problems caused by government meddling justifying the need for further government meddling. These laws look awful, it is the government picking and choosing what is allowed based on their opinion of what is "best".
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @08:44AM (5 children)
Looks more like you are an idiot with anti-government complex.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @09:07AM (4 children)
How many medications do you take regularly?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @11:06AM (3 children)
The idiot avoidance pill.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @11:40AM (1 child)
2000mg of vitamin KCN ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @12:25PM
That would make me an idiot, right? Rather look in the other direction ;)
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday May 13 2019, @02:04PM
Evidently it's working in reverse.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 13 2019, @09:06AM (20 children)
Have you ever heard of the word "deregulation"? It has been applied to a number of industries, since the late '70's beginning with the trucking industry. It comes with it's pros and cons. Banking was largely deregulated, and we had a huge bank collapse. The airlines have been somewhat deregulated, and we are seeing things like the 737 Max. The drug industry has had it's own deregulation, and we are seeing an opiate crisis, as well as the subject of this article.
The problem with government regulation of any given industry is NOT the regulation, in and of itself. The real question in regards to regulation, is, "Who has the money to buy off the regulators?"
Each and every proposed regulation has it's own lobbyists. When the Telcos want something pushed through, they line up, and line pockets. When a special interest group wants something, they shop around, to see which pockets to line. Deregulation leads to the kind of nonsense we see Ajit Pai defending - so-called "self-regulation" or "voluntary regulation".
So, let's say that you have a zillion dollars invested in poultry. Do you want to hire foxes to guard your chicken houses? No? But, you're willing to allow the cutthroat industrial giants to guard you from cutthroat industrial giants?
Think about it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @09:14AM (10 children)
The federal reserve was still running things during the deregulated banks time weren't they? And the people running the banks were protected from legal repercussions via their corporate shield they bought from the government. Ditto for the rest of the examples. One act of meddling creates a problem that requires the next.
So, it sounds like deregulation is just code for misregulation.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 13 2019, @09:23AM (9 children)
Part A, no, the Fed doesn't exactly run the banking industry. In an indirect manner, they influence all banks, but they don't write banking regulations. The Fed didn't approve of, or disapprove of, all those worthless derivatives that caused the banking industry to crash, nor did they approve or disapprove of all the worthless loans made during the housing bubble. The Fed has no direct authority over the student loans bubble, either.
Part B, yes, various office holders in the US have been bought off, by the banks, and other interests. But, I'm repeating myself now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @01:52PM (8 children)
Sounds like the banks were misregulated then, not deregulated... Just like I said. Removing one or two regulations (and/or other routes or influence) doesn't change that banking remained a very regulated industry.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 13 2019, @02:13PM (7 children)
Let me explain this with pictures and crayons, child. Bankers control money. Huge quantities of money, in fact. You, the consumer, are pretty much powerless against people who control many millions or billions of dollars. With no regulation, you, the consumer, ask your banker for a small loan - maybe $1000. There is nothing to stop him demanding that you repay $2000 for that $1000, or repay $5000, or even $100,000.
You say, "But, COMPETITION!" I say, "BULLSHIT!" In today's climate, with buyouts, forced takeovers, mergers, etc ad nauseum, how many banks can you actually choose among? When I moved to Arkansas, there were many small banks around. There really was competition. Today? All but one of the small banks have been bought up by bigger banks. Right here, in SW Arkansas, with local branches, I have a choice among three banks. If I wish to cross the state line, into Texas or Oklahoma, my choices increase to about 12, I think.
Remove the last of the regulations, how long do you think it would take for these remaining banks to be snapped up by the largest players? And, what will happen to the credit unions then? You may or may not be old enough to remember the Savings and Loan companies. Those are all gone, now.
You really, really don't want to see the banking industry deregulated entirely.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @02:38PM (5 children)
... of heavy regulation.
I hardly think you are really considering a scenario where you removing all the regulations (you'd need to get rid of the fed, and get rid of the entire concept of corporations too). You keep missing my point. I most definitely am not in favor of repealing random regulations and leaving others.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 13 2019, @03:02PM (4 children)
So, anarchy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @03:13PM (2 children)
Nope. If there was actually "deregulation" that is what you would get though. Deregulation is a misnomer for what you are describing. That is my entire point with your post.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 13 2019, @03:17PM (1 child)
Sorry, I didn't coin the word, or the phrases associated with it. The "deregulation of the trucking industry" meant a lot of changes, but ultimately, it resulted in just about as many regulations, enforced by the feds instead of the states, and favoring big corporations like JB Hunt, rather than the independents.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @08:01AM
Runaway: Stolen Valor, never served in the Navy, they have no record of a "Runaway1956" ever serving. And I doubt he was ever an actual trucker. CDL number and CB handle, or you are a fake, you funching Republican Hillbilly Redneck piece of shite!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @08:00PM
oh noes! non self rule! any thing but freedom! fucking slave.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday May 13 2019, @07:04PM
SKY HIGH interest on your Credit Card? You can thank Sleepy Joe Biden -- often referred to as the Senator from MBNA -- for that one!!!
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday May 13 2019, @09:39AM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @10:20AM (1 child)
And then you get into a No True Scotsman fallacy, because Europe is largely socialist (at least by US standards) and has been doing fine.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @01:49PM
Europe hasn't needed to pay for its own military for a long time, once that happens look for taxes to go up another 20% over there. We are already seeing riots begin in France. And look how much power voters have over leaving the EU...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 13 2019, @01:39PM (4 children)
We've had a number of bank collapses, yet we still have banks. There are other fixes to bad banks than regulation. Bankruptcy is one such fix.
Well, regulation itself is often a big part of the problem, such as when regulation is sufficiently onerous that one has to break it in order to function (naturally leading to the above corruption) or when regulation is so complex that one can't understand the regulation that one's activities are subject to. Ignorance is no excuse, right?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 13 2019, @01:52PM
I think that problem goes right back to, who has the money to buy politicians. Multiple special interests can each buy their own politicians, to ram this or that through legislation. No surprise then, that you can have mutually contradictory regulations governing the same business. Politics - where everyone compromises everything, if there's a dollar to be had. Funny that we never seem to investigate congress for corruption, isn't it?
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday May 13 2019, @02:31PM (2 children)
Sports must have rules and officiating. The officiating must not be corrupt. Take those away and the sport, no matter what it is, breaks down.
If there weren't rules and laws against it, why shouldn't players simply try to murder or sabotage the competition? You know, like Tonya Harding did Nancy Kerrigan?
Civil society needs rules and enforcement too. How'd it be if WalMart and KMart employees started shooting each other? And tried to intimidate the other's customers, shoot them too? You're just minding your own business, walking into a WalMart store, when a KMart sniper murders you as an example to your fellow WalMart shoppers.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by HiThere on Monday May 13 2019, @04:46PM (1 child)
That's both a valid point and a counter example.
It's a counter example because when kids are playing for fun, then they officials are a hindrance, and the rules are informal. As they get more serious about winning, the conditions change. Generally team sports are played so seriously by the time that one is in junior high school that both rules and officials are necessary. But often adults can play without need for officials, and with agreed variants of rules. In my family we agreed that one can look up words before playing them in Scrabble, even though that's explicitly against the official rules. And note that no official was involved. At my college dorm we had two variations of hearts, in one of which the first card played was always the two of clubs, and in the other it was whatever was lead by the player to the left of the dealer, but couldn't be a heart. Don't try this at a Casino game.
Now in business the desire to win is so strong that even with firm rules and officials and the existence of formal penalties, players frequently break the rules. Many of them don't seem to feel either guilty or ashamed of doing so, only of getting caught.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:55AM
It depends on the stakes. For low stakes games, sure, informality works.
But when the stakes are high and there are enough participants that not everyone knows everyone else, the money grubbers come out of the woodwork. They're going to work every angle they can think of to win those big bucks. Psych out the opposition, and mangle the rules and trample the spirit without quite breaking the letter. I played in a big money chess tournament just once. Before the game started, my first opponent let me know he was actually a much stronger player than his rating would suggest, because he purposely threw his last 20 games to get his rating under the limit. Sounded proud of his cleverness in working the system in that way. He was probably trying to scare me too. While such sandbagging is not technically cheating, it certainly is unethical. Of course some will outright cheat if they can figure a way to do it with good odds of going undetected. My next opponent provided an inaccurate clock, giving me the side that ran faster so I would have less time. Now that one is cheating, but this was the days of mechanical clocks, and some inaccuracy had to be allowed. Couldn't do anything about that one either, as I had no clock of my own. I've seen the same kind of crap in other games whenever there was significant prize money.
Cheating also happens when it is very easy to do. Play chess online, and it won't be long before you run into an opponent who is using a strong computer chess engine to make their moves for them.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday May 14 2019, @03:14AM
So in other words, regulations don't kill businesses, people do? :)
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 13 2019, @09:07AM (12 children)
Now that you are aware, I dare you to refuse to buy the generic medicines you need because their price is corrupted by the government meddling: either pay for the non-generic or don't buy at all. Make this a principle you follow your entire life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @09:10AM (11 children)
Sure, I choose don't buy at all. What medicines do you think I "need"?
(Score: 4, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Monday May 13 2019, @09:27AM (4 children)
If you're a man. The worst thing a man can do is go bald. Never let yourself go bald. Ask your Dr. about Propecia. Sometimes referred to as Proscar or, Finasteride. It's also tremendous for prostate. No shots, it comes in a pill. Highly recommend!!!
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Monday May 13 2019, @01:56PM (2 children)
Be very careful of side effects. Too much makes your voice high, hands small, hair weird, and skin turns orange.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @04:49PM
Forget the meds, just wear a MAGA hat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @05:03PM
If you take Propecia and Viagra it will make your hair stand up.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Tuesday May 21 2019, @06:00PM
Going bald is a sign of virility,
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 13 2019, @09:53AM (5 children)
Keep it that way, you promised youself. Don't ever forget to be a man of your word, don't let yourself down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday May 13 2019, @10:35AM (2 children)
AC would prefer that EVERYTHING was owned by just ONE company, so it could jack up the price of everything BIGGLY without having to break any nasty government collusion laws.
One cuppa: $400,000. Yeah!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @01:55PM (1 child)
Yep, and that one company is the US government. Single payer healthcare would be cheaper I thought.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @07:06PM
Reality is too much for you, go back to school the first round didn't seem to take.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @02:12PM (1 child)
You think I am kidding, but I really am terrified of the healthcare industry and will avoid any interaction unless it is for some age old treatment like a broken bone, etc. I do not look upon them the same way as you at all.
They have zero accountability for harming people, deaths from medical errors isn't even kept as an official stat. They told people to eat a low fat diet (code for high carb) and caused an obesity crisis. They told people to wear UVB-only blocking sunscreen and caused a skin cancer crisis. No one gets in the least bit of trouble when they give bad advice/treatment.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @08:04PM
different ac here. the truth is not a troll, you dumb bitch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 13 2019, @11:37AM
Grow up. And keep off the keyboard until you do.