U.S. Govt Files Two Anti-Trust Suits

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32304, 23 May 1970, Page 11

U.S. Govt Files Two Anti-Trust Suits

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright)

WASHINGTON, May 22.

The United States Government yesterday filed two civil anti-trust suits against 12 overseas firms and several United States companies which make and sell quinine and quinidine—drugs used to treat malaria and heart disease.

The civil suits, seeking damages and an injunction against price-fixing and market allocations, are a followup to criminal charges brought in October, 1968, alleging conspiracy to restrain and monopolise sales of the drugs. Both suits named six Dutch companies, three West German firms, two British firms, and one French firm.

Six United States companies were named in one suit seeking an injunction, and seven in a second suit for damages that the Government claims it suffered because it paid inflated prices to stockpile the drugs as a result of rigged bids.

Four defendants have consented to final judgments against them in the injunction suit, and eight have agreed to settle in the damages suit. A total of $U5175,000 damages will be paid by Mead Johnson, Bristol - Myers, Greeff, Dart, Zimmer, Boehringer, Vantorex, and Societe Nogentaise. Five of the corporate defendants in the 1968 criminal action have already entered no-contest pleas, and have been fined SUS3IO,OOO. The Government said in the damages suit that it was cheated both ways when it bought the drugs for its emergency stockpile programme and, in later years, reduced its holdings by selling part of the stockpile.

Some of the defendants conspired to increase the price when the United States appeared as a buyer, the com-

plaint said. But when the Government was reducing its stocks, the conspiracy forced the price down, enabling the firms to buy the drugs at bargain prices.