Glenmark Pharma To Pay $30 Million To Settle Drug Price-Fixing Case In U.S.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.'s U.S. subsidiary has entered into an agreement with the antitrust division of the Department of Justice to settle an issue relating to price-fixing of generic medicines.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc. entered into the three-year deferred prosecution agreement to "resolve all of its court proceedings with the DOJ involving historical pricing practices by former employees relating to the generic drug pravastatin between 2013 and 2015".

The company will pay $30 million or around Rs 250 crore to the department in six installments along with adherence to other terms of the agreement, according to an exchange filing on Tuesday.

The case relates to the charges alleging that it had conspired with Teva to fix prices for a cholesterol drug called pravastatin.

In the past, a lot of companies—typically competitors—in the U.S. were under the scanner for colluding and artificially fixing prices of generic versions of drugs to prevent the massive price erosion post genericisation of essential medicines and gaining unfair profits.

This case seems to be one of the latest resolutions in a string of such cases.