Allergan agrees to pay $300m to end birth control litigation
Allergan’s Warner Chilcott and Watson subsidiaries have agreed to pay $300 million to end antitrust litigation centering on contraceptive pills Loestrin 24 Fe and Minastrin 24 Fe.
Ahead of a trial that was due to start earlier this week, Allergan announced the resolution, which it said made no admission of wrongdoing.
Purchasers of Loestrin 24 Fe and Minastrin 24 Fe filed their suit at the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island in 2013.
“When faced with the prospect of imminent generic competition to its formulation known as Loestrin 24 Fe, Warner Chilcott paid the generic manufacturers, defendants Watson and Lupin, to withdraw their challenges to the patent and delay entry into the market,” said the suit.
Warner Chilcott then allegedly used this delay to switch as many Loestrin 24 prescriptions as possible to another new formulation of Loestrin, one which would not face generic competition for several years.
The purchasers went on to claim that Warner Chilcott also sued the generic drug makers that had submitted applications to the Food and Drug Administration for approval to sell generic versions of Loestrin 24.
“Warner Chilcott filed these patent lawsuits without regard to whether or not they had legal merit. Its purpose in filing the lawsuits was not to win them, but to use them to delay the onset of generic competition,” argued the claim.
The settlements are subject to court approval of the agreements with the direct and indirect purchaser classes.
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