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US: Class status upheld for Nexium pay-for-delay suit

By  |  January 26, 2015

Union health funds alleging that AstraZeneca paid generic drugmakers not to challenge its Nexium patents were properly certified as a class, the First Circuit ruled on Monday.

According to reports, while the jury found that AstraZeneca had made unjustified payments to Ranbaxy to delay the release of a generic form of a competitive drug, the jury said those payments were not unreasonably anticompetitive because no competing Union health funds alleging that AstraZeneca paid generic drugmakers not to challenge its Nexium patents were properly certified as a class, the 1st Circuit ruled.

The deal has kept any generic substitute for Nexium from reaching the market even though AstraZeneca’s patents expired in May 2014.

The First Circuit affirmed class-action status for the case last week, despite claims that the lack of a generic alternative has not injured all class members.

Full Content: Courthouse News Service

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