AstraZeneca fails in US Nexium reverse payment suit

In a US federal court victory for Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy (BSE: 500359), in a suit that was the first test of what antitrust limits may be placed on reverse payment deals among drugmakers.

A federal district court in Boston has rejected a motion from Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) for a new trial in the matter, reported the US law firm Venable, which acted for Ranbaxy. The case – which concerned of a patent law suit that stalled sales of a cheaper version of the gastrointestinal drug Nexium (esomeprazole) in the USA until AstraZeneca’s patents expired last May - is the first reverse payment suit to go to trial since the US Supreme Court ruled in June 2013 that the Hatch-Waxman Act settlements could be challenged under federal antitrust law, said Venable.

In his decision, Judge Young reviewed the course of the trial and found that there was no basis for granting a new trial. Judge Young wrote: “The question now before this Court in considering these post-trial motions is thus whether the trial proceedings here were sufficiently fair that one can have a strong degree of confidence in the outcome.  The answer to that question is that they were.”

The Court also denied the Plaintiffs’ request for an injunction because the Plaintiffs failed to prove a violation of the antitrust laws. Specifically, because the jury concluded that the Ranbaxy-AstraZeneca settlement did not cause any antitrust injury, Plaintiffs were not entitled to an injunction. On this point the Court commented: “Tested against the common sense of actual jurors, the Plaintiffs’ evidence fell short. Far short.”