11:22 AM EDT, 09/25/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Biogen (BIIB) was sued by the city of Baltimore for allegedly engaging in an "unlawful scheme" to reduce competition from generic versions of its brand-name drug Tecfidera for multiple sclerosis.

The class-action complaint alleges Biogen "crafted a market-switch strategy" by developing a "next generation" version of Tecfidera called Vumerity, which was different not "in a medically important way, but in an economically important way," according to a court filing dated Friday.

"When filling a prescription written for Vumerity, pharmacists could not automatically substitute generic Tecfidera," the filing said. Biogen's plan was "to get doctors to switch their prescribing from Tecfidera to Vumerity before the generic versions of Tecfidera were available in the marketplace," the city alleged.

The complaint was filed with the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Biogen didn't immediately reply to a request for comment from MT Newswires.

Shares of Biogen fell 1.6% in recent trading Wednesday.

Price: 191.03, Change: -3.09, Percent Change: -1.59