Corporate & Securities Law

Supreme Court (Again) Denies Cert In a ?Reverse Payment? Case

By David Fischer

Yesterday, the Supreme Court denied cert in Arkansas Carpenters Health and Welfare Fund v. Bayer AG, again refusing to consider a “reverse payment” case.  From Dow Jones:

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit challenging Bayer AG’s (BAYRY) deal with Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. (BRL) to delay producing a generic version of Cipro, an antibiotic drug.

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Separate litigation on the Cipro agreements brought by drug wholesalers and retailers is still pending in a lower court. The Obama administration intends to file a brief in that case, which is in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

Bayer paid $398 millionto Barr and other generic drug makers in return for an agreement that they would not market a generic version of Cipro until Bayer’s patent on the drug expired. Drug purchasers and advocacy groups challenged the agreement as anticompetitive, saying it violated federal and state antitrust laws as well as state consumer protection laws.

The lawsuit was thrown out by a U.S. trial judge in New York in 2005. Last year the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the rejection, agreeing that Bayer’s patent rights gave it the ability to enter into agreements limiting generic alternatives to its antibiotic.

Full post as published by Antitrust Review on June 23, 2009 (boomark / email).