Pfizer subpoenaed in U.S. intravenous saline solution probe

BOSTON Pfizer Inc has received grand jury subpoenas from the U.S. Justice Department in connection with an antitrust investigation focusing on drugmakers that market intravenous saline solutions.

The drugmaker disclosed the subpoenas in a statement on Wednesday after ICU Medical Inc, which recently acquired Pfizer’s global infusion therapy business, and Baxter International Inc said they received similar subpoenas involving intravenous solutions.

ICU Medical said the probe related to Hospira Infusion Systems, which the company purchased in February from Pfizer, which in turn acquired it in a merger with Hospira Inc in 2015.

“Pfizer can confirm that it has received grand jury subpoenas in connection with an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division and we are evaluating the requests,” the company said in a statement.

A Pfizer spokeswoman said the probe related to intravenous saline solutions. The Justice Department declined to comment.

The probe comes amid a shortage of intravenous saline solutions commonly used to hydrate hospital patients that dates back to late 2013, when drug companies began notifying hospitals that they might experience delays in deliveries.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in January 2014 added the solutions to its drug shortage list, at the time saying the shortage had been triggered by factors including increased demand by hospitals, potentially related to the flu season.

In 2015, a bipartisan group of four U.S. senators asked the Federal Trade Commission to probe the three companies they said supplied all the saline solution used in the United States, Baxter, Hospira and B. Braun.

The senators said that since the shortage began, prices had risen 200 percent to 300 percent.

A proposed class action lawsuit filed in Chicago in November accused Baxter and Hospira of engaging in a conspiracy to restrict output and fix prices for intravenous saline solution under the pretext of a supply shortage.

On Friday, Baxter disclosed that one of its employees received a grand jury subpoena issued by the U.S. district court for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. ICU Medical on Tuesday said it received a similar subpoena.

ICU Medical and Baxter said the subpoenas sought documents and testimony about the manufacturing, selling, pricing and shortages of intravenous solutions, including saline, and communications with competitors.

Baxter and ICU Medical have said they are cooperating with the probe and that they have also received information requests from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)