AstraZeneca wins in US Nexium pay-for-delay litigation

7 December 2014

Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) revealed on Friday that a jury in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts returned a verdict in favor of the company in a multi-district antitrust case filed by various purchaser groups challenging the previous settlement of Nexium (esomeprazole) patent litigation with India-headquartered generic drugmaker Ranbaxy (BSE: 500359).

The litigation concerned a patent settlement, or pay-for-delay deal, which have been blamed for delaying the entry of generic medicines onto the market. These allegedly anticompetitive agreements have come under greater government scrutiny in both the USA and Europe, and in particular from the USA’s Federal Trade Commission. The latest ruling means that AstraZeneca has avoided a multi-million dollar damages claim.

But Ranbaxy still can’t launch its generic

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