Lance Armstrong would be impressed... According to a lawsuit filed in federal court by 44 state prosecutors, Teva Pharmaceuticals is a criminal mastermind. The allegation: It corralled 19 other drug firms to keep generic drug prices high — 1,000% higher than they could/should be. That's anti-competitive, illegal, and just wrong. So it dropped Teva stock 15%.
That's a lot of attorneys general... Here are a couple things we noticed from this lawsuit:
- It's a shore thing: More than half of the 20 companies are based in New Jersey.
- And it's a TV thing: President Trump just enacted new rules that require drug ads on TV to display the price if the medication costs more than $35/month.
One thing Americans aren't polarized on... Drug prices. Successful lobbying and divisive politics allowed pharma firms to raise prices on life-or-death drugs for years. Now a Republican President, over a dozen Democratic presidential candidates, and 44 state prosecutors want it to stop. Investors have already left the stadium. This game's over.