Drugmakers Are Denied Supreme Court Review

On Tuesday, in an order list, the Supreme Court denied petitions for certiorari filed by Pfizer and generic drug-maker Ranbaxy in a pay-for-delay case over the cholesterol drug Lipitor, and by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (now Pfizer) and generic company Teva Pharmaceuticals in a similar suit over the antidepressant drug Effexor XR.

The pharmaceutical companies were sued by purchasers of Lipitor in one set of cases, and purchasers of Effexor in the other, alleging that the brand companies had fraudulently obtained patents for the drugs and pursued a series of sham patent suits, and that the brand drug company and the generic entered into illegal reverse payment agreements that unlawfully delayed generic competition for the drugs.

The drugmakers filed the certiorari petitions to try to reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, allowing both lawsuits to go forward.  On August 21, 2017, the Third Circuit found that the purchasers plausibly alleged that a reverse payment took place from the brand drug company to the generic, and that the Supreme Court case FTC v. Actavis does not require plaintiffs to quantify the benefits of an anti-competitive reverse payment at the dismissal stage.  

Faruqi & Faruqi represents the direct purchaser plaintiffs in the litigation.