Antitrust Challenge Filed Against Drug Discount Abuse Scheme

In The Vaccine Center LLC v. GlaxoSmithKline LLC et al., a Nevada clinic has sued in the District of Nevada alleging that GlaxoSmithKline LLC, nonprofit Apexus Inc., and a public health agency conspired to violate the antitrust laws by abusing a federal drug-discount program.  The plaintiffs claim that the Southern Nevada Health District abuses its nonprofit status to obtain reduced-cost drugs that it resells to the general population instead of the intended beneficiaries, low income patients.  As a result, the plaintiffs allege, private sector competition has been restrained because private providers need to pay substantially more for the needed drugs.  In addition, the poor remain under-served because the discounted drugs are not going to them.

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