Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (Blue Cross) Monday, August 22 filed a lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Copaxone, a brand-name drug that alleviates the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS), a BC/BS statement said.

The class action suit to which BC/BS of Vermont belongs is just the latest legal action against Teva for its Copaxone reimbursement schemes. The U.S. government suit filed in August, 2020 claiming that Teva took kickback payments from ostensibly third-party foundations.

The government alleged that, from 2007 through 2015, Teva, an Israel-based corporation, paid The Assistance Fund (TAF) and Chronic Disease Fund (CDF) so that the foundations would use Teva’s money to cover the Medicare co-pays of patients taking Copaxone. During the same period, Teva raised the price of Copaxone from approximately $17,000 per year to over $73,000 per year.

After learning of Teva’s years-long scheme to reap excessive profits from Copaxone, Blue Cross petitioned the court to recover the excessive costs we paid on behalf of our members as a result of Teva’s illegal and anti-competitive conduct. Higher prices on prescription drugs puts upward pressure on premiums.

According to the United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform Report, Teva has raised the price of Copaxone in the United States 27 times since first releasing the drug in 1997, BC/BS said. The cost of a yearly course of the drug has skyrocketed from $10,000 in 1997 to nearly $70,000 today.

A major component of Teva’s nefarious scheme is offering manufacturer coupons to patients, insulating patients from the out-of-pocket costs for Copaxone. That practice gives patients a false sense of savings and incentivizes using expensive brand-name drugs over lower priced alternatives. But as insurers and employers pay the ever-rising costs for those brand-name drugs, insurance premiums rise.

Blue Cross also claimed Teva ratcheted up the price of Copaxone in the U.S. while lowering the price in other countries, and lobbied the FDA through the citizen petition process to delay the entry of generics into the marketplace. Instead of competing fairly in the marketplace with generic drugs, Teva circumvented drug substitution laws through a “product-hop” arrangement and implemented a Medicare kickback scheme through non-profit advocacy organizations.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is Vermont’s only local, not-for-profit health plan. For over 30 years, the company has provided health insurance plans to individuals, older Vermonters, and businesses.