Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.
“The true driver of Teva’s revenue growth was its illegal
collusion with competitors to raise generic drug prices.”
Jeremy A. Lieberman
Jeremy A. Lieberman
On February 5, 2018, Pomerantz LLP filed an individual securities fraud litigation on behalf of several institutional investors against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. (collectively, “Teva”) and certain of Teva’s current and former employees and officers.
Teva is the largest generic drug manufacturer in the world and one of the 15 largest pharmaceutical companies worldwide.
Pomerantz’s clients are Israeli institutional investors who purchased Teva shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
On July 8, 2020, defendants moved to dismiss the Israeli securities law claims, arguing, inter alia, that those claims should be resolved in Israel. Pomerantz argued that the court should exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the Israeli securities law claims, which are based on the same facts as the U.S. claims already being litigated before the court. The court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss and chose to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the Israeli law claims.
The complaint alleges that, while touting Teva’s robust revenue growth, defendants went to great lengths to conceal the true driver of that growth—namely, the illegal pricing strategy whereby, in collusion with its competitors, Teva methodically raised prices throughout its generic drug portfolio. This caused Teva’s securities to trade at artificially inflated prices during the relevant period.
On November 3, 2016, the media reported that U.S. prosecutors were investigating Teva and several other pharmaceutical companies for unlawfully colluding to fix generic drug prices and that criminal charges might be filed against those companies by the end of 2016. On December 9, 2018, Joseph Nielsen, who has been leading the Connecticut AGs’ investigation, announced that its scope was far larger than initially reported, exposing “the largest cartel in the history of the United States.”
These disclosures destroyed billions of dollars in investor wealth.
By the end of May 2019, investors learned that Teva had played a key role in the opioid epidemic afflicting the nation, which, together with the company’s liability arising from its illegal sales of generic pharmaceuticals, could result in over $4 billion in damages and criminal liability.
Pomerantz’s Teva litigation is led by partners Jeremy A. Lieberman and Michael J. Wernke.
In re Teva Securities Litigation, No. 3:17-cv-558 (D. Conn.)
Relevant Period: February 6, 2014 to May 30, 2019, both dates inclusive
For violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Israel Securities Law, 1968, and the Pennsylvania Securities Act of 1972