Tag: Competition

A Roswell, New Mexico physicians’ association, Southeastern New Mexico Physicians IPA, settled charges that it and two of its employees entered into collective agreements among physician members on fees and refused to deal with health plans that did not accept the collective agreed-upon terms. According to the complaint, these practices increased the price of health care in the Roswell area. The consent order prohibits the IPA and its employees named in the consent from orchestrating agreements between physicians to negotiate with health insurance plans on behalf of any physician and deal or refuse to deal individually with any third party payer.

Private attorneys in Clark County, Washington who provide criminal legal services for indigent defendants under a county contract settled charges that they illegally entered into an agreement known as the “Indigent Defense Bar Consortium Contract” to collectively demand higher fees for certain types of cases and refuse to accept specific additional cases unless the Clark County complied with their demands. The county was forced to substantially increase the reimbursement rate for each of the case categories specified in the Consortium Contract. According to the Commission, the conduct of the attorneys was identical to the boycott staged by criminal defense attorneys in Washington, DC which was ruled to be price fixing by the U.S. Supreme Court in the matter of Superior Court Trial Lawyers Association. Robert Lewis, James Sowder, Gerald Wear, and Joel R. Yoseph, the four attorneys who led the activities and served as the representatives of the 43 attorneys who signed the Consortium Contract, were named in the complaint and in the consent order.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (BMS) settled charges that it engaged in illegal business practices to delay the entry of three low price generic pharmaceuticals that would be in direct competition with three of its branded drugs. The complaint alleged that BMS purposely made wrongful listings in the Orange Book of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and that it also paid a potential competitor over $70 million to delay the entry of its generic drug. The three drugs involved in the complaint are: Taxol (containing the active ingredient paclitaxel) – used to treat ovarian, breast, and lung cancers; Platinol (containing the active ingredient cisplatin) – used for the treatment of various forms of cancer; and BuSpar (containing the active ingredient buspirone) – used to manage anxiety disorders. To prevent recurrence of Bristol's pattern of alleged improper listings, the consent order eliminates Bristol's ability to obtain a 30-month stay on later-listed patents. By denying Bristol the benefit of the 30-month stay on later-listed patents, the order would reduce Bristol's incentive to engage in improper behavior before the PTO and the FDA to obtain and list a patent for the purpose of obtaining an unwarranted automatic 30-month stay.