US: Court upholds AstraZeneca, Ranbaxy win in Nexium antitrust trial

A US appeals court upheld AstraZeneca and Ranbaxy Laboratories’ victory in a lawsuit accusing them of reaching an illegal deal to delay the launch of a generic version of AstraZeneca’s heartburn drug Nexium.

A panel of the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston on Monday refused to throw out a December 2014 jury verdict in favour of AstraZeneca and Ranbaxy, which was acquired in March 2015 by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries.

The judges rejected arguments by drug wholesalers and health plans that the jury was prevented from hearing certain arguments and evidence, and was given improper instructions.

Plaintiffs had estimated the potential damages at $4 billion to $20 billion or more in court filings.

The class action lawsuit, filed in 2012 in Boston federal court, accused AstraZeneca of paying Ranbaxy nearly $700 million to drop a challenge to AstraZeneca’s patents on Nexium and delay launching a generic version of the drug.

It got a boost in 2013, when the US Supreme Court ruled that such deals, sometimes called pay-for-delay deals, may violate antitrust laws if they involve a “large and unjustified” payment from a brand-name drugmaker to a generic drugmaker that suppresses competition.

Full Content: Euro News

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