Mylan Sues Newspaper Over Controversial Article

The drugmaker filed a defamation lawsuit against The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, accusing the paper of mischaracterizing its actions,The Wall Street Journal reports. Mylan claims the paper "intentionally and misleadingly omitted, juxtaposed and distorted the facts" in a July article saying Mylan workers routinely violated quality-control procedures at its generic-drug plant in Morgantown, W. Va.

The FDA investigated the Mylan plant shortly after the article appeared and said it did not find any "objectionable" deficiencies or evidence that the quality of Mylan products had been compromised, the Journal writes. A Post-Gazette spokeswoman told the Journal the paper wasn't aware of the lawsuit and therefore couldn't comment on it (here is the lawsuit).

Mylan is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, asserting in the suit that the article led to "dramatic" fluctuations in its stock price and damaged its reputation among patients and shareholders, the Journal writes, adding the suit claims the paper "manufactured a crisis where none existed." (The Post-Gazette published this follow-up to its initial report).

The defamation suit is the second suit filed by Mylan against the paper since the article appeared. In August, Mylan filed a suit accusing the Post-Gazette of misappropriating trade secrets, saying the paper wrongfully obtained an internal memo used to bolster claims made in the article, according to the Journal. The Post-Gazette called the allegations "meritless."

The article was prompted by an internal Mylan report on the handling of computer-generated warnings about potential manufacturing problems. The Post-Gazette reported Mylan employees were routinely overriding warnings about potential problems, according to the Journal.