Massachusetts Federal Court Approves Over $70 Million in Pay-For-Delay Settlements
Massachusetts Federal Court Approves Over $70 Million in Pay-For-Delay Settlements
On July 18, 2018, U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper granted final approval to two settlements between a class of direct purchasers and drugmakers Impax Laboratories Inc. and Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp. to end the pay-for-delay action involving the acne medication Solodyn. Combined with the other settlements in the case, it amounts to more than $70 million.
In giving her preliminary approval for the Impax settlement, Judge Casper said the settlement was “the result of arm’s-length negotiation among sophisticated counsel.” Judge Casper also recently awarded attorneys’ fees and approved requests from class representatives for service awards.
The litigation was centralized in Massachusetts federal court in early 2014 after a host of suits were filed by direct purchasers, indirect purchasers, and individual retailers alleging that Medicis made reverse payments to generic manufacturers to delay generic competition to its drug Solodyn.
Generic drug manufacturers Sandoz Inc. and Lupin Ltd. were also involved in the litigation but settled with the direct and indirect purchasers in April 2017 for a combined $6.7 million to escape the lawsuit.
Faruqi & Faruqi represented the direct purchaser plaintiffs in the litigation.
Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP focuses on complex civil litigation, including securities, antitrust, wage and hour and consumer class actions as well as shareholder derivative and merger and transactional litigation. The firm is headquartered in New York, and maintains offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.
Since its founding in 1995, Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP has served as lead or co-lead counsel in numerous high-profile cases which ultimately provided significant recoveries to investors, direct purchasers, consumers and employees.
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Kristyn Fields’ practice is focused on antitrust litigation. Kristyn is a Partner in the firm’s New York office.
