Generic drug customers in Connecticut could have money coming their way, thanks to a major legal settlement unveiled on Thursday.

Two generic drug makers have agreed to pay $49.1 million to settle price fixing claims, Attorney General William Tong announced. Some of that money will go to patients who overpaid for their medications – and more could be coming in the future.

Generic drugs are supposed to save you money by letting multiple drug companies sell the same drug. But now, two manufacturers admit they conspired to keep prices artificially high.

Apotex will pay $39 million, while Heritage Pharmaceuticals will pay $10 million, to settle a lawsuit led by Connecticut on behalf of 50 states and U.S. territories, as well as the District of Columbia. The suit claims both companies fixed prices on diabetes, arthritis, epilepsy and high blood pressure medications, among others.

Those inflated prices cost patients millions – including Tong himself.

“Why did the doxycycline that I take spike 8,000% over the last decade or more?” he said at a Thursday news conference. “There’s no good reason for it.”

Both companies have agreed to make changes to prevent price fixing in the future.

Connecticut has filed three lawsuits against generic drug makers dating back to 2015. Court papers detail hundreds of phone calls and emails between pharma executives right before they all raised prices.

“They used terms in emails and communications like, ‘Let’s make sure everybody gets their fair share,” Tong said. “’Let’s play nice in the sandbox with each other.’”

The cases revolve around 20 million documents and phone calls between 600 pharmaceutical sales executives. Evidence includes a two-volume notebook containing notes about calls with competitors and internal company meetings over a period of several years. Pharma leaders also colluded at industry “girls’ nights out,” according to Tong.

“In this industry, like many of the industries that we take on, are not too big to fail,” Tong said. “They’re too big to care.”

As part of the settlement, both companies agreed to cooperate with Connecticut’s cases against 30 other pharmaceutical companies and two dozen individuals. Two former Heritage Pharmaceuticals executives, Jeffery Glazer and Jason Malek, also settled and agreed to work with the states.

Tong said the upcoming lawsuits could bring much larger settlements for patients.

“There are even bigger players than Heritage – Taro, Teva, Sandoz, Mylan, which is now part of Pfizer,” he said.

The first case going to trial is a 2020 lawsuit alleging that patients overpaid by tens of billions of dollars for dozens of common skin creams and shampoos.

If you purchased a generic prescription drug manufactured by either Heritage or Apotex between 2010 and 2018, you may be eligible for compensation. To determine your eligibility, call 1-866-290-0182 (Toll-Free), email info@AGGenericDrugs.com or visit www.AGGenericDrugs.com.