Teva Wins Reversal on Bellwether Status in Generic Pricing Case

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., which is facing civil and criminal liability for its alleged role in an industrywide scheme to fix generic drug prices, got a federal judge in Philadelphia to backtrack from her earlier decision putting two of its cases on track for the multidistrict litigation’s first trials.

Judge Cynthia M. Rufe granted Teva’s motion to reconsider the “bellwether” ruling, saying the move was justified by the company’s federal indictment, which raised the prospect of delays stemming from a Covid-19 pandemic that has “utterly upended the ability of the courts to conduct criminal trials.”

“The court knows firsthand ...