KPH Healthcare Adds Three Companies to Generic Drug Price-Fixing Lawsuits

A pharmacy chain operator that brought antitrust class action lawsuits against more than a dozen generics manufacturers has added three more — Actavis Holdco, Lannett and Epic Pharma — claiming they colluded to raise the prices of the gallbladder stone treatment ursodiol.

In suits filed as part of multidistrict litigation consolidated in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, plaintiff KPH Healthcare Services claimed the companies met at trade meetings and decided to collectively hike prices of generic medications in 2013 and 2014.

The average price of ursodiol increased 1,540 percent between June and September 2014 and the prices were not associated with increases in manufacturing costs, KPH said.

The chain operator previously named Mylan, Sandoz and Teva, among 10 other companies, in suits involving the prices of six other drugs.