Pharma Groups to Face Antitrust Suit Over Drug Import Websites

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy must face antitrust claims over its alleged scheme to “choke off” online information about affordable Canadian drugs by blacklisting websites that include foreign pharmacies in their comparison shopping features, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled.

Judge Kenneth M. Karas let PharmacyChecker.com LLC move forward with allegations that pharmaceutical trade groups led by the NABP engineered an illegal boycott through a “coordinated misinformation campaign” aimed at search engines, social media companies, shippers, and payment processors.

PharmacyChecker offered significant “circumstantial evidence of a conspiracy,” including “joint press releases,” meetings “and other communications suggesting that defendants ...