It might be the biggest price-fixing scheme in U.S. history. On Friday, Connecticut and a coalition of more than 40 states filed a 500-page lawsuit accusing the biggest generic drug makers of a massive, systematic conspiracy to bilk consumers out of billions of dollars. It's a more sweeping version of a similar lawsuit the states filed in 2016 that's still being litigated. The generic industry vehemently denies the allegations. Congress established the current generic industry in 1984 to push prices down. The idea was that once patents on brand name drugs expired, generic makers would compete to make drugs more affordable. But 1,215 generics, many of them the most prescribed drugs, jumped on average more than 400 percent in a single year. Connecticut has been examining the generic drug industry for almost five years. Tonight, we'll take you inside its investigation and show you how two dogged attorneys built the cases the state attorney general calls the most egregious examples of corporate greed he has ever seen. William Tong: It's an industry-wide conspiracy. And I think it answers one of the biggest questions all of us are asking, which is why are prescription drugs so expensive? And I think we know why now. Because the prices of generic drugs are fixed. And there's a widespread conspiracy to rig the market. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong says his office found evidence of price fixing by dozens of generic drug industry sales directors, marketers, CEOs dating back to 2006. Bill Whitaker: How many drugs are we talking about? William Tong: Every kind of drug that touches our everyday lives. I'll give you an example, Bill. This is my bottle of doxycycline. It is a common antibiotic that I take every day for a skin condition. And there is a conspiracy around doxycycline. And so sitting here today as the attorney general of the state of Connecticut, I'm one of the victims. Between 2013 and 2014, a bottle of doxycycline shot up 8,281 percent from $20 to more than $1800. A bottle of asthma medication, albuterol sulfate, jumped more than 4000 percent, from $11 to $434. Pravastatin, a cholesterol drug, up more than 500 percent, from $27 a bottle to $196. The sudden price spikes caught the attention of Congress, which called a hearing; the Department of Justice, which launched an investigation; and the state of Connecticut, which now has filed two lawsuits. William Tong: This is a phased approach And we're focusing on all the major players. Bill Whitaker: So is it your contention that these companies are putting Americans' lives at risk? William Tong: Yes, you know, it's $100 billion market. We're talking about the drugs that America takes every day to live. And they're profiteering off of that in a highly illegal way. They're just taking advantage. Bill Whitaker: The industry says that the prices went up because of market forces and because of drug shortages. These explanations don't wash with you? William Tong: No. I mean they'
It might be the biggest price-fixing scheme in U.S. history. On Friday, Connecticut and a coalition of more than 40 states filed a 500-page lawsuit accusing the biggest generic drug makers of a massive, systematic conspiracy to bilk consumers out of billions of dollars. It's a more sweeping version of a similar lawsuit the states filed in 2016 that's still being litigated. The generic industry vehemently denies the allegations. Congress established the current generic industry in 1984 to push prices down. The idea was that once patents on brand name drugs expired, generic makers would compete to make drugs more affordable. But 1,215 generics, many of them the most prescribed drugs, jumped on average more than 400 percent in a single year. Connecticut has been examining the generic drug industry for almost five years. Tonight, we'll take you inside its investigation and show you how two dogged attorneys built the cases the state attorney general calls the most egregious examples of corporate greed he has ever seen. William Tong: It's an industry-wide conspiracy. And I think it answers one of the biggest questions all of us are asking, which is why are prescription drugs so expensive? And I think we know why now. Because the prices of generic drugs are fixed. And there's a widespread conspiracy to rig the market. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong says his office found evidence of price fixing by dozens of generic drug industry sales directors, marketers, CEOs dating back to 2006. Bill Whitaker: How many drugs are we talking about? William Tong: Every kind of drug that touches our everyday lives. I'll give you an example, Bill. This is my bottle of doxycycline. It is a common antibiotic that I take every day for a skin condition. And there is a conspiracy around doxycycline. And so sitting here today as the attorney general of the state of Connecticut, I'm one of the victims. Between 2013 and 2014, a bottle of doxycycline shot up 8,281 percent from $20 to more than $1800. A bottle of asthma medication, albuterol sulfate, jumped more than 4000 percent, from $11 to $434. Pravastatin, a cholesterol drug, up more than 500 percent, from $27 a bottle to $196. The sudden price spikes caught the attention of Congress, which called a hearing; the Department of Justice, which launched an investigation; and the state of Connecticut, which now has filed two lawsuits. William Tong: This is a phased approach And we're focusing on all the major players. Bill Whitaker: So is it your contention that these companies are putting Americans' lives at risk? William Tong: Yes, you know, it's $100 billion market. We're talking about the drugs that America takes every day to live. And they're profiteering off of that in a highly illegal way. They're just taking advantage. Bill Whitaker: The industry says that the prices went up because of market forces and because of drug shortages. These explanations don't wash with you? William Tong: No. I mean they'
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