Connecticut Attorney General William Tong led a 44-state coalition in announcing a lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) and 19 other generic drug manufacturers alleging a "broad conspiracy to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition and unreasonably restrain trade for more than 100 different generic drugs."

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, also names 15 individual senior executive defendants who were responsible for sales, marketing, pricing, and operations. "The drugs at issue account for billions of dollars of sales in the United States, and the alleged schemes increased prices affecting the health insurance market, taxpayer-funded healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and individuals who must pay artificially-inflated prices for their prescriptions drugs," Tong said in a statement yesterday.

The complaint alleges that Teva, Novartis' (NVS) Sandoz, Mylan (MYL), Pfizer (PFE) and 16 other generic drug manufacturers, including Amneal Pharmaceuticals (AMRX), Dr. Reddy's (RDY) and Lannett (LCI), "engaged in a broad, coordinated and systematic campaign to conspire with each other to fix prices, allocate markets and rig bids for more than 100 different generic drugs."