Bausch settles $300m antitrust case over diabetes drug price hikes

Canadian pharma firm Bausch Health has agreed to settle an antitrust suit where it was accused of holding an illegal monopoly on the diabetes drug Glumetza (metformin hcl).

Bausch has agreed to pay $300m after claims that its monopoly on the drug allowed it to hike up the price of the drug by almost 800%.

Judge William Alsup from the Northern District of California had approved the class-action suit brought by companies that had bought Glumetza.

Bausch opted instead to settle a month before the case was scheduled to go to trial.

Following Bausch's decision, the unhappy Glumetza customers were "pleased with the settlement, which recovers for the class a very substantial portion of the overcharges that they suffered,” Steve Shadowen, a lawyer for the purchasers told Reuters.

Bausch did not immediately respond to LSIPR's request for comment.

A sizable victory in a reverse payment case

Glumetza is an extended-release version of metformin, a medication for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Metformin is sold under the brand name Glucophage.

Glumetza, alternatively named Metformin ER, lasts longer than regular metformin and has fewer side effects. It's also known by the brand names Glucophage XR, Glumetza, and Fortamet.

The extended-release version was first sold in 2005 by Depomed and Santarus—later acquired by Bausch, then called Valeant Pharmaceuticals.

In 2015, Bausch would go on to hike the drug's price from $5.72 per tablet to $51, according to the lawsuit brought against it.

Glumetza buyers claimed that this occurred after Depomed and Santarus paid off competitor Lupin Pharmaceuticals to delay launching a generic version of the drug until 2016 by agreeing to drop a patent suit.

Both Depomed, now known as Assertio Therapeutics, and Lupin, were also named as defendants in the suit. The suit brought against the trip was filed in 2019 in the Northern District of California.

Judge Alsup ruled in May this year that the companies had to face a jury over the antitrust violation claims.

While Assertio followed Bausch and settled, Lupin is still expected to go to trial in October.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs have asked the court to approve the settlements, which they suggest is one of the largest recoveries in a direct-purchaser class lawsuit in a reverse payment case.

Bausch had dropped patent litigation it brought against Indian generic maker Sun Pharma last September.

Sun Pharma had attempted to market a generic version of Xifaxan, which is used to treat 'travellers’ diarrhoea,' and irritable bowel syndrome.

As part of the settlement, Bausch granted the generics company a non-exclusive license effective January 1, 2028.

Bausch would also go on to settle litigation with Actavis over similar attempts to create a generic version of Xifaxan (rifaximin) in 2019.

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