![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 2 of 2. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Adam on June 4, 2001, at 21:47:39
Anybody hear about this?
I was a little creeped-out to discover, in my mailbox, a brief statement and
questionaire informing me of a class action lawsuit against Mylan, a pharmaceutical
company that manufactures generic lorazampam. The suit claims that the company
overcharged customers for this common benzodiazepine. I was asked, by an old
pharmacy, if I would like to release records of my prescription for lorazepam, being
relevant to the suit, for the purposes of possible reimbursement, as part of either
a victory for the plaintiffs or some sort of settlement. These records, if
released, would be completely public.Of course, I declined. I only used a modest amount of the drug, and if I was over-
charged, I'd be entitled to a few dollars at most. I must admit, even if my stake
in this was considerably larger, I would not provide my records; the fact that I was
contacted at all seems to contradict some assumptions I had about these records,
specifically that they were not kept by pharmacies for more than a couple years. It
must have been three years at least since I last filled a prescription for the drug,
so, clearly, that's not the case.At any rate, if you were a user of lorazapam at some point, you may be getting a
letter like mine in the mail. I can't advise you on what you should do, but, if you
were not aware if the suit, here's a little heads-up.
Posted by Elizabeth on June 4, 2001, at 23:40:13
In reply to Lorazapam/Ativan and class action lawsuit..., posted by Adam on June 4, 2001, at 21:47:39
> Anybody hear about this?
Yes. It's true. Mylan (a generic drug company) and alleged co-conspirators were charged with antitrust violations. I don't know whether the suit (brought by the government, I think) was settled or otherwise reached a conclusion. The class-action might be the result of a finding of guilt on the part of Mylan et al. in the antitrust suit.
The details, if I remember correctly (this was some time ago): Mylan et al. were allegedly conspiring to drive up the prices of certain prescription drugs. The way this worked (allegedly) was that the other companies granted Mylan exclusive rights to materials necessary for the synthesis of the drugs.
As a result, generic Ativan (lorazepam) became extremely expensive. The response of most people I knew who took or prescribed lorazepam was to switch to a different benzodiazepine (heaven knows we have plenty to choose from).
-elizabeth
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Medication | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.