Acting AG Davenport Files Multistate Complaint Against Novartis and Sandoz Alleging Generic Drug Price Fixing

Press Release

| For Immediate Release: February 3, 2026 Office of the Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, Acting Attorney General Division of Consumer Affairs Jeremy E. Hollander, Acting Director Division of Law Michael C, Walters, Director | For Further Information Contact: Allison Inserro, OAGPress@njoag.gov | |
| Acting AG Davenport Files Multistate Complaint Against Novartis and Sandoz Alleging Prescription Drug Price Fixing
Complaint Alleges Conspiracy to Fix Prices for Generic Drugs, Driving up Costs for Patients

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TRENTON – Acting Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and the Division of Consumer Affairs (DCA) announced today that New Jersey filed a multistate complaint with 42 states and territories against Novartis AG and its generic subsidiaries Sandoz AG and Sandoz Group AG. The complaint alleges a systemic campaign to conspire with other generic manufacturers to fix prices, allocate markets, and rig bids for 31 different generic drugs, thereby driving up the cost of prescription drugs for New Jerseyans

The complaint alleges that the conspiracy increased prices affecting the health insurance market, taxpayer-funded health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and individuals who end up paying inflated prices for their prescription drugs. The complaint also asserts that Novartis took steps to fraudulently transfer and drain assets from Sandoz and spin off Sandoz to shield Novartis from liability in the three previously filed state antitrust complaints against the company.

“The rising cost of health care continues to be a major driver of our affordability crisis. That’s why I’m committed to holding prescription drug companies accountable when their conduct violates the law and increases costs for New Jerseyans,” said Acting Attorney General Davenport. “As Attorney General, I am committed to making life more affordable for New Jerseyans, and I will continue to fight to keep prescription drug prices down for all residents.”

“Prescription drug pricing is extremely opaque, and Novartis’s conduct is one of the most egregious examples of conspiratorial drug price fixing we have ever seen,”

said Jeremy E. Hollander, Acting Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs “Generic drugs are intended to save patients money, and these actions did the exact opposite.”

The complaint lays out an interconnected web of industry executives who conspired to fix prices, allocate markets, and rig bids through frequent communications and meetings.

The case stems from investigations built on evidence from several cooperating witnesses at the core of 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.

The complaint filed this week is related to three earlier complaints filed by the New Jersey Attorney General and members of the multistate coalition.

The first complaint included Heritage Pharmaceuticals and 17 other corporate defendants, two individual defendants, and 15 generic drugs. The second complaint was filed against Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 of the nation’s largest generic drug manufacturers. That complaint names 16 individual senior executive defendants. The third complaint focuses on 80 topical generic drugs that account for billions of dollars of sales in the United States and names 26 corporate defendants and 10 individual defendants. This latest complaint focuses on Novartis and Sandoz and ties them into the previous three actions.

Prior to October 4, 2023, Sandoz was an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Novartis through which Novartis operated its generic pharmaceutical business in the United States. However, in reality, defendants Sandoz and Novartis acted as a single entity, with Sandoz acting as the agent for Novartis’s sale of generic pharmaceuticals in the United States. As the complaint alleges, the Sandoz spinoff was a ruse to hide the ill-gotten gains from those entities’ participation in the conspiracy.

The complaint alleges violations of federal and state antitrust law, the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, and the New Jersey Uniform Voidable Transactions Act.

States and territories joining New Jersey in filing the new complaint against Novartis and Sandoz include Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Deputy Attorney General Yale A. Leber in the Division of Law’s Antitrust section handled this case for the State of New Jersey, under the supervision of Assistant Attorney General Brian McDonough and Deputy Director Sara Gregory.

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Last Modified: 2/3/2026 1:05 PM