Two drug companies with Orange County operations were among 39 sued Thursday by state Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
The lawsuit alleges fraudulent price inflation on Medi-Cal drugs. Lockyer’s suit amends a 2003 complaint filed against Abbott Laboratories Inc. of suburban Chicago and Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Lockyer’s suit named Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. of Israel, which has an Irvine operation that it acquired as part of its 2004 acquisition of Sicor Inc., a generic drug maker. The suit also names Sicor and two predecessor entities, Gensia Inc. and Gensia Sicor Inc.
In addition, B. Braun Medical Inc., a Pennsylvania company that employs some 1,600 workers in an Irvine plant, was named in the suit, along with McGaw Inc. McGaw was bought by parent B. Braun Melsungen AG of Germany, which isn’t named in the suit, in 1997.
