US DoJ summons Sun Pharma over generic drug prices

The Dollar Business Bureau

India’s largest drug maker, Sun Pharma, received summons over pricing and marketing of generic drugs from the US Department of Justice on Saturday.

The subpoena surfaced amidst the probe initiated by US regulators into the matter of price rise of generic drugs over the past few years. However, the pharma major stated that the move will not affect the company adversely.

The antitrust division of the court had asked the US arm of Sun Pharma to submit documents disclosing its employee and corporate records and communication with its competitors.

Besides Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s Lab, Allegran Plc also received summons from the US regulators in the past seeking pricing details. However, the details of the products involved were not disclosed. Meanwhile, Sun Pharma is expected to announce its March quarter ended FY16 details soon.

Earlier in 2015, due to incitement from Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings and US Senator Bernie Sanders, the US department of Health and Human Services began a probe into the pricing of generic drugs. A specific mention of doxycycline hyclate 100 milligram, an antibiotic whose price doubled up, was made by them. The DoJ sent the notice to Mylan and Endo International Plc seeking details of pricing the doxycycline based drugs.

Sun Pharma, one among the top five drug-makers in the world, sells doxycycline based drugs in US. However, the subpoena did not specify the products over which the information was sought.