EAST ST. LOUIS, IL—A group of healthcare providers has filed a lawsuit against medical device manufacturer Becton Dickinson (BD), accusing the company of monopolizing the U.S. safety syringe market and abusing its “extraordinary market power to require the use of oppressive, anti-competitive contracts that effectively force above-competitive prices on the market.”

According to a report in Medical Device and Diagnostic Device Industry, the group filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Southern Illinois against BD, its distributors and group purchasing organizations (GPOs). The lawsuit was filed by Marion Diagnostic, a healthcare facility in Marion, IL, and Marion HealthCare, a multispecialty surgery center owned and operated by physicians in Marion.

The wording of the complaint suggests that the underlying problem is the U.S. purchasing system for medical devices. “Purchasing those medical devices and supplies is not like buying consumer goods, where a person can simply walk into a store or click on Amazon to compare prices,” the group said in the complaint. “Rather, a purchase must occur via a web of manufacturers, distributors, and group purchasing organizations ... that use interrelated contracts to drive up costs for healthcare providers.”