Judge approves $120m Momenta and Sandoz settlement
A US federal judge has given preliminary approval to the proposed settlement in the class action suit led by Nashville General Hospital against Momenta Pharmaceuticals and Sandoz over their alleged manipulation of drug testing protocols.
The settlement will see drugmakers pay $120 million to bring the antitrust suit to an end, after Nashville General Hospital and health plan DC 37 filed a motion seeking the court’s approval of the deal.
Chief district judge Waverly Crenshaw signed an order on January 3 giving preliminary approval to the proposed settlement.
The judge said the plaintiffs had provided sufficient evidence that the proposed relief was adequate.
AB Data has been appointed by the court as notice and claims administrator, and will oversee a website and toll-free number to provide information about settlement claims.
Documents filed at the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee indicate that the settlement, which includes both Momenta and Sandoz, will create a “non-reversionary, all-cash settlement fund of $120 million”.
Neither company accepted liability as part of the agreement.
Momenta and Sandoz were accused of concealing a patent application covering a procedure for testing blood thinner Lovenox (enoxaparin sodium), while lobbying to have that test adopted by regulators as a standard.
Generic Lovenox makers would then be required to infringe the patent as part of the production process, the antitrust suit claimed.
The pharmaceutical companies failed last October to have the lawsuit paused.
A Momenta filing at the US Securities and Exchange Commission last month revealed that it had agreed to pay $35 million to settle the claims.
Momenta and Sandoz last year agreed to pay $60 million to Amphastar, a generics company that had been accused of infringing the Lovenox testing patent.
The class action antitrust suit argued that the two companies had agreed to “divvy up profits realised from dominating the market from generic enoxaparin, so long as Momenta could use its patent to block other generic entrants”.
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