Ranbaxy, Teva settle US anti-trust probe for $3,00,000

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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India's Ranbaxy Laboratories and US drugmaker Teva have jointly agreed to settle an investigation launched by the New York Attorney General over claims the two firms colluded to indulge in anti-competitive practices.

Overnight, the Wall Street Journal reported the companies had agreed to pay USD 3,00,000 over an agreement the two companies had inked in 2010 that barred the two rival drugmakers to challenge the other’s claim to sell a generic drugmaker for an exclusive period.

Also read: Ranbaxy shares surge nearly 6% as Q4 net loss narrows

According to the newspaper, Ranbaxy had entered into an advance profit-sharing arrangement with Teva that said that should the Indian firm win the right to sell the generic version of Pfizer’s USD 11 billion cholesterol drug Lipitor (generic name avorstatin) when its patent expired in late 2011, the US firm would not challenge the claim.

Ranbaxy eventually did go on to win the right in 2011.

Under US laws, a generic drugmaker that gets first right to sell an out-of-patent drug gets an exclusive 180-day period by the FDA, but the decision can be challenged by rivals.

After complaints were raised about the 2011 deal being anti-competitive in nature and a probe was launched, the two firms have now agreed to terminate the agreement and undertaken to not enter a similar arrangement in the future, along with paying the USD 3,00,000 fine, the WSJ report said. It did not specify which firm would bear how much of the settlement cost.

"Agreements between drug manufacturers to protect each other's market positions violate fundamental principles of antitrust law and can lead to higher drug prices," the newspaper quoted Attorney General Eric Schneiderman as saying. Drug companies "should be aware that my office will intervene aggressively to root out collusion among industry players."

Ranbaxy and Teva declined to or were not available for comment, WSJ said.

(An earlier version of this article had mistakenly pegged the settlement figure at USD 300 million. We apologise for the error.)