Patent Law

Fitless

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

The antitrust raver FTC has decided not to challenge a reverse-payment agreement between UCB, owner of 4,943,639, and generic drug makers Mylan, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, and Cobalt Pharmaceuticals. '639 claims an anti-epileptic drug that UCB markets as Keppra.

The brouhaha began with the typical patent battle shortly before a drug is weaned off patent protection, and generic makers jockey for market position by filing an ANDA with the FDA for permission to make their knock-off version. The FTC began its fitful investigation after the parties patched up the spat with an agreement, where the generic makers could market their own versions in return for kickbacks. That sort of marketplace back-scratching aggrieves the FTC, which has challenged numerous reverse payment agreements over the past few years, with scant success, as the courts view patents as an antitrust exception: "A patent by its very nature is anticompetitive."

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on March 23, 2009 (boomark / email).