Amneal Pharmaceuticals among major pharmaceutical companies under Federal Investigation

LONG ISLAND, NY(TIP): Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , an American publicly traded generics and specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey and with a facility in Long Island  is  among one of the six major pharmaceutical companies against whom Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have launched a criminal probe over the opioid crisis.

The US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn has issued grand jury subpoenas to manufacturers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Mallinckrodt, Johnson & Johnson and Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. and distributors AmerisourceBergen Corp. and McKesson Corp., according to documents that the companies filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the filing of one of the companies, Teva, it got a subpoena from Brooklyn prosecutors in August for what “the company understands to be part of a broader investigation into manufacturers’ and distributors’ monitoring programs and reporting under the Controlled Substances Act.”

A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn declined to comment. The issuance of the subpoenas to the companies was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The companies are already the targets of lawsuits filed by state and local governments alleging that they hold the blame for an opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people over the last two decades, though the companies have denied any wrongdoing.

Earlier this year, the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan charged the Rochester Drug Cooperative with breaking federal narcotics laws under the Controlled Substances Act, the first time in the US that a pharmaceutical company was hit with charges that are normally used to go after drug traffickers.

In September, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Department of Financial Services announced that the state is suing drug manufacturers, accusing them of defrauding New Yorkers of $2 billion for peddling opioids that they knew were dangerous.

Be the first to comment

The Indian Panorama - Best Indian American Newspaper in New York & Dallas - Comments