US: FTC: Generics tweaking may be anticompetitive

The FTC is asking a US Court of Appeals to revisit a lawsuit from Mylan against Allergan, which claims that Allergan changed the formula of antibiotic Doryx to stymie its competition. Allergan sold the US rights to the drug earlier this year to Mayne Pharmaceuticals.

Even though a trial judge dismissed Mylan’s claims, saying that the company failed to prove any anticompetitive action on the part of Allergan, the FTC doesn’t see things quite the same way.

The practice of tweaking brand-name drugs, or “product-hopping,” can harm consumers who save billions a year through generic meds, the commission said in a statement. Product hopping could also undercut laws that allow pharmacists to automatically swap out brand-name drugs with lower-cost copycats, it added, further jeopardizing fair play.

“A company is unlikely to face potential antitrust liability if it does not take targeted steps to damage the market for the original formulation and instead allows the marketplace itself to choose between that formulation and the modified version,” the FTC said in its amicus brief.

Full content: Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society

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