Attorney General Hilgers Seeks Court Approval for Settlements with Ascend, Citron, and Mayne Over Conspiracy to Inflate Prices and Limit Competition

A coalition of 45 states and territories, led in part by Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, filed for court approval of settlements with three generic drug manufacturers: Ascend Laboratories, Citron Pharma, and Mayne Pharma. The settlements resolve allegations that the companies participated in a widespread, long-running conspiracy to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade in numerous generic prescription drugs. Ascend will pay $400,000 to the states; Mayne will pay $650,000; Citron's settlement carries no monetary component because the company has ceased business operations. All three settlements include injunctive terms requiring internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust law. These settlements are part of a broader multi-complaint litigation involving the generic drug industry. The first complaint named Heritage Pharmaceuticals and 17 other corporate defendants, two individual defendants, and 15 generic drugs. Two former Heritage executives, Jeffery Glazer and Jason Malek, entered settlement agreements and are cooperating with the states. The second complaint, filed in 2019, named Teva Pharmaceuticals and 21 other large generic drug manufacturers, including 16 individual senior executive defendants. Prior settlements with Sandoz, Glenmark, Lannett, Bausch, Apotex, Heritage, and Heritage's parent company Emcure totaled $496.5 million. The third complaint, which is scheduled for the first trial in Hartford, Connecticut in February 2027, focuses on 80 topical generic drugs accounting for billions of dollars in U.S. sales, and names 26 corporate defendants and 10 individual defendants. A fourth complaint alleges that Novartis AG, Sandoz Group AG, and Sandoz AG are liable for Sandoz's alleged conduct and for fraudulently transferring assets. The alleged conspiracy period covered by the states' claims runs from May 2009 through December 2019. The states' investigation is supported by over 20 million documents, a phone records database containing millions of call detail records and contact information for more than 600 sales and pricing individuals in the generics industry, and testimony from cooperating witnesses. Evidence includes a two-volume notebook of contemporaneous notes by one cooperating witness memorializing phone calls with competitors and internal company meetings over several years. Defendants allegedly used terms such as "fair share," "playing nice in the sandbox," and "responsible competitor" to describe conduct the states characterize as unlawful price-fixing and market allocation.