Allergan Plc received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice for its Actavis unit, seeking information regarding the marketing and pricing of its generic drugs, according to an article from Bloomberg.
The probe to Allergan's Actavis unit is part of the U.S. government's widening investigation into the increasing prices of generic drugs in the country.
Bloomberg also reported that the subpoena also asked for communications Allergan made with other generic drug makers regarding the products.
Reuters adds that the U.S. Department of Justice has previously issued subpoenas to several generic drug makers, which includes Impax Laboratories, Inc. and Lannet Co., Inc., as part of the department's investigation.
Generic drug prices have seen rapid increases in the past few years.
Bloomberg adds that Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who's running for president, and Representative Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland has cited data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid with regards to the increase in generic drug prices.
About 10 percent of generic drugs has doubled in prices between July 2013 and June 2014, and half of all generic drugs have increased prices.
These increases have drawn the attention of the U.S. government.
In April, Senator Sanders received a letter from the Office of the Inspector General saying that they are developing a plan to update their review of generic drug price increases. They plan to examine the quarterly average manufacturer prices for the top 200 drugs.
The letter was a response to Senator Sanders's request to have the recent increase in generic drug prices be examined.
Lannet Co. said earlier this year to Bloomberg, that the U.S. government is conducting a criminal antitrust investigation into the generic drug industry.
The company and its senior vice president of sales and marketing were served a grand jury subpoena.
Aside from Lannet and Impax, Endo International Plc and Par Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc., also disclosed the subpoena they received from the U.S. Department of Justice in the past several months, according to Bloomberg.
