Tag: FTC v. Actavis

Gavel surrounded by piles of money.

3 Challenges to Patents on Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies

The Petrie-Flom Center Staff Leave a comment

By Gregory Curfman

Three new developments — two based on litigation and one based on a federal statute — may have significant effects on pharmaceutical manufacturers’ use of patents to fend off competition and maintain high prices for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies.

Highly specific monoclonal antibodies have played an increasingly important role as precision therapies for a growing number of diseases, including malignant, cardiovascular, and inflammatory conditions. As therapies derived from research and development, therapeutic monoclonal antibodies may be — and usually are — patented, providing manufacturers with protection from competition and the prospect of high revenues.

Read More

close up photo of U.S. currency.

When “Pay-for-Delay” Becomes “Delay-Without-Pay”: Humira Antitrust Claims

Laura Karas Leave a comment

By Laura Karas

In June 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois dismissed state and federal antitrust claims against AbbVie, maker of Humira (adalimumab), for accruing more than 130 patents on the top-selling drug and asserting allegedly unmeritorious patent infringement claims against makers of adalimumab biosimilars. AbbVie then settled the patent infringement litigation by entering into agreements with eight drug makers to allow adalimumab biosimilars to enter the U.S. market in 2023 and the European market in 2018.

In my last post, I discussed the district court’s memorandum opinion finding that “the vast majority” of AbbVie’s conduct was not “objectively baseless petitioning” and was therefore immunized under the Noerr-Pennington doctrine. In this post, I explore several problematic aspects of the court’s reasoning for rejecting the claims of pay-for-delay and market allocation.

Read More

Supreme Court Decision on FTC v. Actavis paves the way for development of cheaper drugs

acaplan Leave a comment

Zachary D Caplan JD, attorney at law firm in Philadelphia that filed amicus brief on behalf of drug wholesalers and pharmacies in FTC v. Actavis

Arthur Caplan PhD, Division of Medical Ethics, NYU Langone Medical Center

Amidst all the news about various Supreme Court decisions there is one that ought not be overlooked for its impact both on public health and healthcare reform—FTC v. Actavis.  Today the Court decided, by a vote of five to three, that Big Pharma companies can be sued over deals with generic companies to not bring generic drugs to market.  In so deciding, the Court endorsed the idea that Big Pharma companies with weak patents on their drugs may not pay off other companies that want to make cheaper generic versions to not do so.  This practice, known as pay-for-delay, has run rampant in the pharmaceutical industry over the last two decades costing American consumers billions and restricting access to cheaper versions of drugs.

In FTC v. Actavis, the Federal Trade Commission had alleged a pay-for-delay arrangement between Solvay Pharmaceuticals and Actavis that was intended to keep Actavis from producing a generic version of Solvay’s blockbuster AndroGel testosterone drug.  A lower court—the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals—dismissed the FTC’s complaint.  Now the Supreme Court has reversed that dismissal.

Read More