The number of Connecticut municipalities suing major insulin manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers over price-fixing continues to grow.
Both Bridgeport, the state’s largest city, and New Haven, the state’s third-largest city, filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut on Thursday.
In addition to those four municipalities, three other cities filed identical lawsuits last year.
A lawsuit was filed on behalf of the city of Meriden on Jan. 13, 2025, while another was filed on behalf of Torrington on Aug. 20 and a third was filed on behalf of Middletown on Aug. 28.
All seven lawsuits were filed on behalf of the communities by Madison-based attorney Kenneth Bartlett and Florida-based law firm Levin, Papantonio, Proctor, Buchanan, O’Brien, Barr & Mougey.
The identical lawsuits each accuse drugmakers Eli Lilly and Co., Novo Nordisk Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC of conspiring with the nation’s three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx — to raise list prices for insulin and other diabetes drugs while secretly sharing billions of dollars in rebates and fees.
The suits claim the practice forced each community to overpay for diabetes medications under self-insured health plans covering municipal or school employees, retirees and their dependents, diverting public funds from essential services.
The alleged conduct dates back at least to 2003 and continues today, the lawsuits claim.
The complaints name a wide set of defendants, including CVS Health Corp., UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Cigna Group subsidiaries, as well as PBM-affiliated rebate aggregators such as Zinc Health Services, Ascent Health Services and Emisar Pharma Services.
The lawsuits allege violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, the Connecticut Antitrust Act, the federal Sherman Antitrust Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, along with common-law claims including fraud, civil conspiracy and unjust enrichment.
Each community is seeking injunctive relief, restitution, disgorgement, damages and attorneys’ fees.
The three lawsuits filed last year were all subsequently transferred to the U.S. District Court in New Jersey, where similar cases nationwide are being consolidated under a multidistrict litigation (MDL) docket. The four new cases are expected to also be transferred. The New Jersey MDL now has consolidated more than 400 cases from across the nation.
