November 1, 2013—The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has filed suit in California against drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its Janssen Therapeutics and Janssen Biotech units to recover as much as $2 million in 340B drug discounts that it claims the family of companies failed to provide it between 2005 and 2012.[ms-protect-content id=”2799″]
AHF filed a similar suit against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in September, also in California Superior Court. In both cases, AHF said it learned it had been overcharged through internal auditing and claims analysis. It said it was forced to sue J&J after the company declined its request to reclassify certain non-340B sales as being eligible for 340B pricing. It said in the other lawsuit that GSK had failed to respond to a similar request.
In addition to suing J&J in its latest action, AHF alleges it was denied 340B pricing on covered outpatient drugs by other parties whose identities are unknown to it at this time.
J&J did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
“AHF made the Johnson & Johnson companies aware that we were wrongly charged the non-discounted prices before filing this lawsuit, but the J&J companies have refused to reimburse AHF for the excess amounts it paid for J&J’s drugs,” AHF President Michael Weinstein said in a statement. “As a result, J&J has now forced AHF to seek judicial intervention to obtain the critically needed discounted drug pricing to which AHF is—and was—entitled.”
AHF’s statement notes that J&J and its Janssen subsidiaries “control a significant portion of the AIDS drug market with drugs that include Prezista, Intelence, Endurant, and Procrit.”
“Given the profits Johnson & Johnson has made on these lifesaving drugs, the fact that they will not extend the legally required drug pricing discounts to a safety-net care provider like AHF is shameful,” Weinstein said.
“We believe, and our lawsuit asserts, that J&J should not be permitted to effectively refuse to comply with their legal and contractual obligations with respect to 340B program covered drugs without consequence and thereby deprive AHF of funds that it would use to benefit the vulnerable safety-net population it serves,” said AHF attorney said Laura Boudreau.
As in the earlier suit against GSK, the AIDS group alleges that J&J violated California’s unfair competition law. It further alleges breach of contract, negligence, unjust enrichment, and a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.[/ms-protect-content]