FTC Study finds big rise in US patent settlements; challenged by GPhA

During the 2012 fiscal year, the number of potentially anticompetitive patent dispute settlements - also termed pay-for-delay deals - between branded and generic drug companies increased significantly compared with FY 2011, jumping from 28 to 40, according to a new US Federal Trade Commission staff report. The study also found that in nearly half of these settlements, branded drugmakers may have used the promise that they would not develop or market an authorized generic (AG) as a payment to stall generic drug firms from marketing a competing product.

The FTC staff report found that drug companies made 40 potential pay-for-delay deals in FY 2012 (October 1, 2011 through September 30, 2012). The figure is significantly higher than last year’s total of 28 deals, and is the highest of any year since the FTC began collecting data in 2003. Overall, the agreements reached in the latest fiscal year involved 31 different brand-name pharmaceutical products with combined annual US sales of more than $8.3 billion.

“No-AG” deals favor generic drugmakers