Indiana will receive $6.25 million as part of a settlement with global pharmaceutical companies over allegations that they conspired to increase the price of a prescription device called EpiPen by more than 600% on Hoosier consumers. The product is used to inject adrenaline into patients to combat severe allergic reactions.
“Some pharmaceutical companies have prioritized profits over patients,” Attorney General Todd Rokita said. “But by demonstrating there are severe penalties for unlawful tactics to overcharge Hoosiers, we can deter this kind of conduct in the future.”
In January of 2025, Attorney General Rokita filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging that Viatris Inc., Pfizer Inc. and other companies conspired to increase prices in order to maximize the money made from EpiPen prescriptions and prevent other similar products from coming to market and being available to consumers. Viatris was formed via a 2020 merger of Mylan and Upjohn, a Pfizer subsidiary.
The complaint alleged the companies, and their subsidiaries violated the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, the Indiana Antitrust Act and the Medicaid False Claims Act by continually increasing the price of EpiPens and providing payments to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to exclude competition.
The lawsuit also asserted the companies paid doctors to endorse their decision to launch a 2-pack of the EpiPen and claim it is medically necessary — allowing the companies to cease selling individual EpiPens.
As part of the settlement, the companies deny any wrongdoing.
This action is part of Attorney General Rokita’s ongoing efforts to ease healthcare burdens for Hoosiers. Since taking office, he has secured a $66.5 million settlement against Centene; a $573 million multistate settlement against McKinsey & Company for its role in the opioid epidemic; nearly $7 million in a Medicaid fraud settlement against Mallinckrodt; a $39.1 million multistate settlement with Apotex over generic drug price-fixing; assisted in a multistate opioid settlement against the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma; and announced an 11th multistate opioid deal — bringing the total opioid funds secured for Indiana to $1.1 billion.
At the end of last year, Attorney General Rokita filed a lawsuit against Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company over that company’s alleged inflation of insulin prices. In 2024, Attorney General Rokita sued drug manufacturers (Sanofi-Aventis and Novo Nordisk) and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (CaremarkPCS Health, Express Scripts, CVS Health Corp., and Optum RX) for allegedly inflating insulin prices. These lawsuits remain pending.