Generic Drugmakers Ask Court to Order AGs to End ‘Media Blitz’

The generic drugmakers at the center of a multistate antitrust suit asked a Philadelphia federal court to impose a gag order on investigators after the Washington Post reported details about the case.

In their motion, the defendants, who the lawsuit accuses of conspiring to fix drug prices and allocate customers, accuse the plaintiffs, led by the attorney general offices of Connecticut and Louisiana, of violating ethics rules in their disclosures to media about the litigation. The Post’s Dec. 9 article, they write, “contains extensive quotes and information disclosing nonpublic information concerning the States’ investigation, including allegations not even made in the litigation to date,” including the number of drugs and drugmakers being investigated and details about the harm they claim the defendants have caused.

The motion claims the two attorneys general continued their “media blitz” with a press conference to publicize the investigation, during which they provided specific quotes from confidential documents produced under Connecticut law, disclosed details about a forthcoming complaint whose details they did not share with the court or defense, and speculated about further potential harms caused by the defendants.