The lawsuit, filed on Monday, alleges that Assertio and Lupin struck a deal with units of Bausch to delay the entry of their generic versions of Glumetza and allowed the companies to "maintain a monopoly" in the sale of the branded drug and its generic copies.

Bausch, Assertio and Lupin did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment.

Albertson Companies Inc and Kroger Inc were among the other defendants.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)