Pay for Delay

In a decisive ruling, the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union on Thursday upheld a significant fine against French pharmaceutical company Servier for its anti-competitive "pay-for-delay" deals aimed...

The “New Madison” approach sounds so promising. Old but new. Updating the classics for the modern era. What could be bad? In a word: everything. The intersection of patent and antitrust law has a long pedigree. For decades, antitrust’s role in patent-based activity has been acknowledged. Patent licenses are subject to antitrust scrutiny. “Pay for […]

By Robin Feldman (UC Hastings Law) In a landmark decision nearly a decade ago, the Supreme Court opened the door for antitrust suits against brand and generic pharmaceutical companies who engage in collusive settlements to delay the time for the generic to come to market. With these “pay-for-delay” agreements, brand-name companies offer prospective generic competitors […]

Danish drugmaker Lundbeck on Thursday, March 25, lost its fight against a 2013 EU antitrust fine imposed for deals with rivals to delay sales of generic copies of its antidepressant citalopram after Europe’s top court sided with EU enforcers, reported Reuters. The case is one of several in the European Commission’s decade-long crackdown against pay-for-delay […]

Maria José Schmidt-Kessen (Copenhagen Business School)1   Introduction While we are still awaiting the judgments in the pending appeals on pay-for-delay settlements in Lundbeck2 and Servier,3 the Court of Justice of the European Union was faster in answering the preliminary reference by the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (“CAT”) in Case C-307/18 Paroxetine. The judgment came […]

Posted by Social Science Research Network Antitrust Developments in Food and Pharma By John M. Connor Closing the loopholes of downstream application of the Capper-Volstead exemption in the food system and pay for delay in pharmaceuticals is an important advance in US and EU antitrust norms. First, pay-for-delay conduct has been harmful for pharmaceuticals customers. […]

Posted by Social Science Research Network Antitrust Law and Patent Settlement Design By Erik Hovenkamp For competing firms, a patent settlement provides a rare opportunity to write an agreement that forestalls competition without transparently violating the antitrust laws. Problematically, such agreements are highly profitable for reasons that have nothing to do with resolving a patent dispute. […]

Endo International Plc, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Teikoku Seijaku have agreed to pay a cumulative US$270.8 million to resolve class action lawsuits alleging Endo paid to delay launching a generic version of its Lidoderm painkiller patch. Endo has agreed to pay a combined US$100 million to resolve claims brought by separate classes of direct purchasers of […]

The European Commission has informed pharmaceutical company Teva of its preliminary view that an agreement concluded with Cephalon was in breach of EU antitrust rules. Under the agreement, Teva committed not to market a cheaper generic version of Cephalon’s drug for sleep disorders, modafinil. Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner in charge of competition policy, said, “Market entry […]

As complex as reverse-payment antitrust lawsuits can be, the one being litigated against generic drug maker Ranbaxy over its settlement with Cephalon can be broken down to the difference between fine and coarse salt, said one of the attorneys bringing the case. Foley & Lardner attorney James Matthews, who is representing fellow generic drug maker […]

In this issue: In the antitrust debate arena, health care topics are the gifts that just keep on giving—always something new to discuss, analyze, or understand. This issue focuses primarily on two segments, product hopping and pay-for-delay. The first paper describes and analyzes, while the next two papers contrast regulatory approaches. Then we present case […]

Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court finally tackled Reverse Payments. In Actavis, they leaned away from many lower court decisions and acknowledged that reverse payments (or “pay for delay”) can create antitrust violations. But they didn’t give the FTC—who has waged war on the concept for several years—carte blanche. Our distinguished panel has had time […]