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Two prominent US lawmakers on Thursday called on federal anti-trust regulators to probe whether Sanofi SA, Eli Lilly and Co, Merck & Co Inc and Novo Nordisk A/S colluded to set prices for insulin and other diabetes drugs.
The request by US Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Elijah Cummings follows a similar letter they sent last fall calling for an investigation into 14 drug companies over price increases of generic drugs.
US prosecutors could file the first charges by the end of the year in their subsequent criminal investigation of generic drugmakers over suspected price collusion, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
In their latest letter to the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission, Sanders, an independent, and Cummings, a Democrat, raised questions about skyrocketing prices for insulin, alleging that the price hikes seem to occur in tandem.
They noted that the original patent on insulin, a hormone used by diabetics to control blood sugar levels, expired 75 years ago.
Both Sanofi and Novo Nordisk have said prices are set indepenedently, while a Merck spokeswoman said the company does not make insulin at all. Merck makes other products to treat diabetes.
Eli Lilly, in an email, said it strongly disagrees with the accusations in the letter, adding that "the insulin market in the US is highly competitive".
Shares of several generic drugmakers fell on Thursday after the report of pending Justice Department charges.
"We do not think the major generic companies have likely participated in significant pricing collusion," A/B Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal said in a research note.
Aggressive drug pricing has come under intense scrutiny after Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted her intent to tackle high prices last year.
An August report from the Government Accountability Office found that out of the 1,441 analysed generic drugs, more than 300 of them increased prices by at least 100 percent between the first quarter of 2010 and the corresponding period in 2015.
Recent price hikes that have drawn fire included Turing Pharmaceuticals' decision in 2015 to raise by 5,000 percent the price of a decade-old treatment for a dangerous parasitic infection.
Generic drugmakers, possibly reacting to the political headwinds, reined in price hikes this year.
Guggenheim Securities, citing polling of generic drugmakers, last month estimated that overall U.S. generic drug prices would dip by apercentage in the mid-single digits this year.
