Nov 16 (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss charges in Pennsylvania against a former sales and marketing executive of Taro Pharmaceutical Industries who was accused of conspiring to fix generic drug prices between 2013 and 2015.
Prosecutors said in a filing they were dropping their case against Ara Aprahamian, who had pleaded not guilty in Philadelphia federal court to charges including price-fixing and bid-rigging.
“Dismissal of this case is not contrary to manifest public interest, and it will allow the conservation of this court’s time and resources,” prosecutors said.
They did not explain why the government was dropping the case, which was still in the evidence collection and sharing stage.
The Justice Department declined to comment. A lawyer for Aprahamian, Bob Gage, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Taro in July 2020 agreed to pay more than $200 million to resolve criminal price-fixing allegations amid a broad crackdown by the Justice Department on alleged pricing abuses in the generic drug market.
Taro is now owned by India’s Sun Pharmaceutical Industries. A spokesperson for Sun on Thursday did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2020, a former executive of Novartis unit Sandoz, Hector Armando Kellum, pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to fix prices for generic medicines.
Prosecutors in that case had alleged Aprahamian was one of Kellum’s co-conspirators. Kellum agreed to cooperate, prosecutors said.
Kellum’s sentencing is set for April 30, 2024, in U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick’s court. Attorneys for Kellum did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
The case is United States v. Ara Aprahamian, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 2:20-cr-00064-RBS.
For United States: Kristina Srica of the Justice Department
For Aprahamian: Bob Gage of Gage Spencer & Fleming
Read more:
Former executive of Taro Pharmaceutical indicted in U.S. for price-fixing
Ex-Sandoz executive pleads guilty in U.S. generic drug price-fixing scheme
Source: Reuters
