Press Release

Acting Attorney General Cori Mills Announces $400 Million Multi-State Settlement Over Generic Drug Conspiracy

August 5, 2026

(Anchorage, AK) – Acting Alaska Attorney General Cori Mills has joined a coalition of 43 states and territories announcing a $400 million settlement in principle with Sandoz Inc. to resolve allegations that the generic drug manufacturer engaged in widespread, long-running conspiracies to artificially inflate and manipulate prices, reduce competition, and unreasonably restrain trade with regard to numerous generic prescription drugs.

If approved, Sandoz Inc. will pay a total of approximately $469 million to settle the claims brought by state enforcers, including amounts paid pursuant to previous settlements with other states.

“This predatory behavior and manipulation of the market made citizens choose between physical and financial well-being” said Acting Alaska Attorney General Cori Mills. “These drugs were not overpriced on their own, and they weren’t affected by the law of supply and demand. We believe the conduct was malicious, and I’m glad we came to a good agreement in principle.”

The settlement will also resolve allegations that Sandoz Inc.’s past and present international affiliates, Novartis AG, Sandoz AG, and Sandoz Group AG, participated in the alleged anticompetitive conduct and fraudulently transferred assets in order to avoid liability. As part of the settlement in principle, Sandoz has agreed to meaningful injunctive terms including a series of internal reforms to ensure fair competition and compliance with antitrust laws. This settlement is contingent upon obtaining signatures from all necessary states and territories and comes as the States prepare for an anticipated trial in 2027. The States have also secured settlements in the same litigation with Glenmark, Lannett, Bausch, Apotex and Heritage totaling approximately $96.5 million.

The Connecticut Attorney General’s Office is leading a coalition of nearly all states and territories in a series of antitrust cases, starting first in 2016. The cases all stem from a series of investigations built on evidence from several cooperating witnesses at the core of the different conspiracies, a massive document database of over 20 million documents, and a phone records database containing millions of call detail records and contact information for over 600 sales and pricing individuals in the generics industry. Each complaint addresses a different set of drugs and defendants and lays out an interconnected web of competing industry executives that met with each other during industry dinners, "girls’ nights out," lunches, cocktail parties, golf outings and communicated via frequent telephone calls, emails and text messages that sowed the seeds for their illegal agreements. Throughout the complaints, defendants use terms like "fair share," "playing nice in the sandbox," and "responsible competitor" to describe how they unlawfully discouraged competition, raised prices and enforced an ingrained culture of collusion. Among the records obtained by the States is a two-volume notebook containing the contemporaneous notes of one of the States’ cooperators that memorialized his discussions during phone calls with competitors and internal company meetings over a period of several years.

Acting Attorney General Mills is joined in securing this settlement in principle by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

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Department Media Contact: Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.

Due to resource constraints, we no longer post links to referenced records. Records filed in a federal court are readily available at Docket Search or PACER, and records filed in a State of Alaska court are readily available from the Alaska Court System (Trial Courts - Alaska Court System and Search for an Appellate Case). Contact Sam Curtis to request a referenced record that is not readily available from a court or on the internet, or contact law.recordsrequest@alaska.gov to submit a formal Alaska Public Records Act request.