US federal Appeals Court rules in favor of FTC on pharma patent rights transfer

Debbie Feinstein, the Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition, issued the following statement regarding this week’s decision by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upholding a November 2013 FTC rulemaking that deems the transfers of pharmaceutical patent rights to be reportable assets under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act – even if the sellers retain some manufacturing rights.

“The rulemaking is an important part of our efforts to protect competition in the pharmaceutical sector, and I am pleased that the appeals court has affirmed it,” Ms Feinstein said.

The HSR Act requires most of the proposed transactions that affect commerce in the United States and are over a certain size to be reviewed by the FTC or the Department of Justice. Either agency can take legal action to block deals that it believes would “substantially lessen competition.”