ALLEGEDLY STIFLING GENERIC COMPETITION
In 2013, Hagens Berman filed a class action case alleging that the 2005 settlement of a patent infringement lawsuit between Kos Pharmaceuticals and Barr Laboratories was a “pay-for-delay” agreement that effectively blocked all generic versions of the cholesterol drug Niaspan from entering the U.S. market until 2013. The lawsuit says purchasers were thereby forced to pay monopoly prices for years longer than they should have.
The suit alleges that the settlement was anticompetitive and caused purchasers of Niaspan to incur substantial damages. Kos, which is now part of AbbVie, and Barr, which is now part of Teva, both deny the allegations, claiming that the settlement was entirely legal.
STATUS OF THE NIASPAN LITIGATION
The litigation captioned In re Niaspan Antitrust Litigation is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania before the Honorable Timothy J. Savage.
Hagens Berman has been appointed co-lead counsel for a proposed class of direct-purchaser plaintiffs. Following completion of fact discovery, expert discovery closed in the spring of 2019. The parties’ motions for summary judgment and to exclude the testimony of certain expert witnesses are fully briefed, and a trial date will be set once the pending motions are decided.
TOP PHARMA LAW FIRM
Hagens Berman is one of the most successful litigation law firms in the U.S. taking on pharmaceutical companies and has achieved more than $320 billion in settlements against Big Pharma largest sellers and manufacturers for antitrust schemes, pay-for-delay, IP shams and other forms of wrongdoing that drive up the costs of prescription drugs for consumers and others.
CASE TIMELINE
On August 13, 2019, the Court certified the class of direct-purchaser plaintiffs.
On Sept. 8, 2014, the Court rejected the defendants’ motion to dismiss.
