PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Michael Undorf

Phone: (302) 577-8924

Date: July 19, 2004

CONSUMERS WILL SOON RECEIVE SETTLEMENT CHECKS FROM 
ANTITRUST LITIGATION FOR PURCHASES OF BUSPAR

(Wilmington, DE): Attorney General M. Jane Brady today announced that settlement checks returning approximately $67,000 to ninety-three Delaware consumers who submitted claims for purchases of BuSpar®, a medication for treating persons suffering from generalized anxiety disorder, or its generic versions, will be mailed Monday, July 19, 2004. A letter from Attorney General Brady explaining the payments will accompany the checks.



“When companies illegally increase the cost of prescription drugs, it means some consumers are going to have to go without”, said Brady. “By preventing consumers access to generic drugs, the cost of prescriptions is 
higher.”



The settlement was recovered in an antitrust case in federal District Court for the Southern District of New York in which Attorney General Brady, joined the attorneys general of the other 49 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories as counsel for a class of individual consumers who paid for BuSpar® and its generic versions. The lawsuit asserted that Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Watson Pharma, Inc. and Danbury Pharmacal, Inc., took steps in violation of the antitrust laws which prevented generic BuSpar from coming to the market. In November 2003, the Court approved a settlement negotiated by the Attorneys General on behalf of consumers in all the states and territories. 

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