Ololade Adeyanju/
Rising Pharmaceuticals Inc., a generic pharmaceutical company with headquarters in New Jersey, US has admitted to charges of conspiring to fix prices for a generic hypertension drug, the US Department of Justice said in a statement today.
According to a one-count felony charge filed today in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, from about April 2014 until at least September 2015, Rising participated in a criminal antitrust conspiracy with a competing manufacturer of generic drugs and its executives to fix prices and allocate customers for Benazepril HCTZ, a medicine used to treat hypertension.
The statement says this charge is the fourth in the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division’s ongoing criminal investigation in the generic pharmaceuticals industry, noting that two executives were previously charged and pleaded guilty to criminal antitrust violations, and a corporation, Heritage Pharmaceuticals Inc., was charged and entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Antitrust Division.
Today, the Antitrust Division entered into a deferred prosecution agreement resolving the charge against Rising, under which the company admits that it conspired to fix prices and allocate customers for Benazepril HCTZ, the statement reveals.
The statement further reads, “Under the deferred prosecution agreement, Rising agrees that $1,543,207 is the appropriate amount of restitution it owes to victims of the charged conduct. To account for Rising’s separate agreement with the Department’s Civil Division, which requires Rising to pay approximately $1.1 million in civil damages for False Claims Act violations predicated on Rising’s antitrust conduct, the deferred prosecution agreement calls for an offset of Rising’s restitution, to $438,066.
“The agreement also requires Rising to pay a $1.5 million monetary penalty, reduced from the fine of approximately $3.6 million called for under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, due to Rising’s financial condition and liquidation.
“Both the deferred prosecution agreement and civil settlement agreement require approval in the bankruptcy court. Once approved, the deferred prosecution agreement will be filed in district court.
“In addition, under the deferred prosecution agreement, Rising has agreed to cooperate fully with Antitrust Division’s ongoing criminal investigation. To allow Rising to comply with the agreement’s terms, the United States will defer prosecuting Rising for three years, or until its ongoing bankruptcy proceedings become final, whichever comes first. The agreement will not be final until accepted by the court.”
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