Two groups sued Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. in a proposed class-action lawsuit Monday, claiming the company’s relationship with specialty mail-order pharmacy Philidor Rx Services was illegal and allowed Valeant to overcharge and wrongly charge for prescription drugs, in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Much of the lawsuit focuses on the Philidor relationship, which it said enabled improper or illegal pharmaceutical conduct that facilitated the payment of “exorbitant prices” for Valeant (VRX, +0.03%) drugs.

The groups, a hotel workers employee-benefits fund and a labor union representing New York City police officers, say that Valeant’s overcharging and wrongly charging for prescription drugs harmed them.

They proposed that the class include any health care actors “who paid or incurred costs for Valeant-branded products,” along with New York purchasers, a class “so numerous” that the exact number is unknown, the lawsuit said.

The suit, which was brought against Valeant and two leaders of the now-defunct Philidor, emphasized price hikes on Valeant drugs, spelling out many of them, such as an increase in price of the diabetes drug Glumetza by more than 800%.

“Valeant was able to implement many of these price hikes because it was simultaneously steering patients and physicians away from generic equivalents and toward Valeant-branded drugs through its secretly controlled network of pharmacies led by Philidor,” the lawsuit states.

Valeant’s pharmaceutical practices utilized mail and wire, the lawsuit states, conferring eligibility for a suit under the RICO Act.

Valeant shares were down 1.9% in late afternoon trade on Monday. Shares of the company rose 6.4% over the last three months, compared with a 3.9% rise in the S&P 500 (SPX, -0.25%)