A central Virginia community health center has joined an upstate New York health center’s antitrust lawsuit against four insulin and diabetes drug manufacturers over the companies’ denials of 340B pricing when covered entities use contract pharmacies.
Central Virginia Health Services’ (CVHS) status as a plaintiff emerged on Friday when it and the original plaintiff, Mosaic Health, filed an amended complaint in federal district court in Rochester, N.Y. Mosaic originally filed suit on July 30. Mosaic has 22 locations and CVHS has 18, all with 340B contract pharmacy arrangements.
The federally qualified health centers are suing AstraZeneca, Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, which the FQHCs say dominate the U.S. markets for fast-acting and long-acting insulins and Type 2 diabetes drugs that stimulate a patient’s own insulin production. Mosaic and CVHS allege that the four companies illegally “worked together to boost their profits by coordinating to retract” 340B discounts for drugs delivered to and dispensed by contract pharmacies.
The FQHCs are not going after the four companies for violating the 340B statute. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2011 that 340B covered entities don’t have the right under the statute to sue drug companies over alleged 340B overcharges. Mosaic and CVHS instead claim that the four companies’ actions restrain competition in violation of federal and state antitrust laws and state unjust enrichment laws. They seek to have the suit certified as a nationwide class action, an award of damages as decided by a jury, repayment for overcharges, and an injunction against the companies’ 340B contract pharmacy actions.
The drug companies’ responses to the lawsuit are due this Friday, Oct. 29.
