Managing Intellectual Property

FTC antitrust war wages on

01 March 2009

Managing Intellectual Property

The US Federal Trade Commission's campaign against reverse payments between innovator pharmaceutical companies and generics stepped up a gear last month

Eileen McDermott, New York

In its latest bid to curb these payments , the FTC filed a complaint against Solvay Pharmaceuticals and three generic drug makers.

The complaint alleges that Watson Pharmaceuticals, Par Pharmaceuticals and Paddock Laboratories agreed to abandon their Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) with the Food and Drug Administration challenging Solvay's patent on AndroGel and to delay generic entry into the market until 2015 in exchange for "substantial compensation", including $10 million a year for six years to Par and $6 million up front to Paddock.

According to the FTC, this practice constitutes anticompetitive behaviour not anticipated by the Hatch-Waxman Act. "Solvay has unlawfully extended its monopoly not on the strength of its patent, but rather by compensating its potential competitors," said the complaint.

In a statement, commissioner Jon Leibowitz of the FTC said: "This is yet another example of pharmaceutical companies turning competition on its head. ....



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