Momenta to pay $35m to end enoxaparin class-action suit

Momenta Pharmaceuticals has agreed to pay $35 million to settle a 2015 class-action suit that claimed that it blocked generics of the blockbuster blood clot drug enoxaparin from coming to market.

The company made the announcement in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, December 10.

Enoxaparin was originally developed by Sanofi and sold under the brand name Lovenox.

The class-action suit, filed at the US District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, claimed that Momenta “manipulated” the generic approval process in order to claim patent protection over the process of testing enoxaparin.

Sandoz was also named as a co-defendant in the case.

In October this year, Momenta and Sandoz failed to convince the Tennessee court to pause the class-action litigation.

According to the suit, Momenta pushed for the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) to adopt a certain test as a requirement for enoxaparin manufacturers looking to meet US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.

Momenta did not disclose that it was “prosecuting a patent that would cover this very test, and potentially enable it to monopolise and control the market for generic enoxaparin if the USP chose this standard over others,” the complaint said.

The antitrust suit said Momenta and co-defendant Sandoz conspired 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”.

In June this year, Momenta and Sandoz agreed to pay $60 million to generics maker Amphastar to end all litigation related to Amphastar’s enoxaparin sodium injection.

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