Shareholders of drugmaker Mylan (NASDAQ: MYL) are off to a good start this year, with an 8.4% gain after last year's 27% loss. The market may be thinking of the company's planned combination with Pfizer's Upjohn business, which focuses on off-patent branded drugs and generics. The deal is expected to close around the middle of this year and is a bright spot among challenges that haven't gone away.
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Mylan, a company best known for generic drugs, watched its stock slide last year after it was named along with other generic-drug manufacturers in a case alleging price-fixing. The lawsuit, brought by more than 40 state attorneys general, describes an industrywide conspiracy to fix prices of generic drugs. Rather than one quick blow to the stock price, this could be a drawn-out process that weighs on the shares periodically as the case unfolds.