U.S. authorities charge Teva in generic price-fixing probe

The U.S. Justice Department charged Teva Pharmaceutical with conspiring to raise prices for its generic drugs. Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani weighs in.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Want to get to another issue now, and it has to do with Teva. The US business of that drug maker is being indicted on price fixing allegations. Our Anjalee Khemlani has the details on that indictment. Anjalee.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Thanks, Julie. So, Teva, we know, was involved in this case, and has been with several other companies, including Glenmark, as well as Sandoz, which we know is an arm of Novartis. And so what came out is an indictment against the company for price fixing on various drugs. Basically, the company in agreement with these others to allocate specific market share, as well as prices specifically for arthritis drugs, cystic fibrosis, brain cancer, hypertension, a number of others.

And so Teva has pushed back. As it as it stands right now with this case, some of the other companies have already admitted their roles in this, and Teva's pushing back, basically saying you can't admit to something that you have not done. And they are trying to fight this and appeal this right now.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, and when I checked earlier, the shares were not down that much today, although they were trending lower. Also, another issue you're watching, Moderna has come out with some findings from a small trial it did, a small phase one trial it did of its coronavirus vaccine. What did it find?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: That's correct. So what we thought today was a presentation to the CDC from both Moderna and Pfizer, actually, I should mention, and that includes all the trial data up till now. As you recall, both are in phase three trials right now with their lead vaccine candidates. And what Moderna found, was that the candidate that they chose was actually equally effective with the older adult group, as well as the younger. And they had participants as old as in their 90s. And so that was pretty much the newest revelation today.

And I have to just caution, this is from the older trial, which just tested the safety of the vaccine. Now we're testing the efficacy in these later stage trials. So we're waiting to see how long the durability of this vaccine is. Specifically both companies looking at an initial and a booster shot. So that's a two-dose vaccine. Pfizer also mentioning, by the way, that they'll be monitoring the safety and efficacy for the next two years. So just to highlight the conversations we've been having about how long it takes to really go through the trial process.