On October 23rd, two hundred and twenty eight SFCRTA members attended a breakfast and listened to Connecticut Attorney General William Tong speak about collusion in the drug industry, specifically in reference to generic drugs.
Here are some of his key points:
- Nearly 90 percent of all prescriptions filled are generic drugs, intended to be an alternative to often expensive, brand name prescription drugs.
- Between 2013 and 2014, generic drug prices soared, in some cases over 1000%!
- Price-fixing puts cold, hard greed above the public interest in affordable prescription drugs.
- The first lawsuit in 2016, a 49-State Coalition led by the then CT Attorney General alleging price fixing and collusion to increase the price of various generic drugs, has 18 corporate defendants and two individual defendants.
- Subpoenas to major generic drug companies, dozens of employees, and phone companies for phone records, emails, and texts, led to almost 19 million internal company documents and phone records.
- A second lawsuit filed in May 2019 with a 44 state coalition led by CT Attorney General William Tong is aimed at 20 of the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers – Teva, Sandoz, Mylan, Pfizer and 16 others.
- It includes 15 individual senior executive defendants, over 100 different generic drugs to treat diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, MS, HIV, ADHD, and more. It represents billions of dollars of sales in the United States.
CLICK HERE for complete presentation.
“We have hard evidence that shows the generic drug industry perpetrated a multi-billion dollar fraud on the American people. We have emails, text messages, telephone records, and former company insiders that we believe will prove a multi-year conspiracy to fix prices and divide market share for huge numbers of generic drugs. These are drugs that people in this country rely on every day for acute and chronic conditions and diseases from diabetes and cancer to depression and arthritis. We all wonder why our healthcare, and specifically the prices for generic prescription drugs, is so expensive in this country—this is a big reason why. This investigation is still in its early stages. We will not stop until these companies and the individuals who orchestrated these schemes are held accountable.”
— Connecticut Attorney General William Tong Press Release 5/12/19
Help us to help you: We are looking for speakers for future meetings. What topics or speakers would you like to hear about? Email me at: fcooper2@optonline.net.
Join us!
Our membership year goes from January to December. Click here for membership registration information. Become a member of SFCRTA. We will continue to advocate for retired teachers’ issues: the state’s promised contribution to our Health Insurance (HIPA), our pensions, the 50% reduction in our state income tax, adding another retired teacher to the Teacher Retirement Board (TRB). Remember: retired teachers do not have a union. We do not have a contract with the State. We rely on the legislature to hear our voices and keep the State’s promises. So please join us, and consider joining the ARTC (Association of Retired Teachers of Connecticut), our parent organization. Numbers do matter.
Respectfully,
Frank Cooper, President