Read carefully the bold paragraph(bold by me), and see one of the reasons why drugs are so expensive:
US court voids $448 million award against AbbVie, but revives FTC claim over AndroGel
REUTERS 11:25 AM ET 9/30/2020
Symbol Last Price Change
ABBV 88.1up +1.21 (+1.3926%)
PRGO 46.25down +0.58 (+1.27%)
TEVA 9.065up +0.215 (+2.4294%)
QUOTES AS OF 02:05:49 PM ET 09/30/2020
By Jonathan Stempel
Sept 30 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Wednesday threw out an order requiring AbbVie Inc(ABBV) and a partner to disgorge $448 million in profit for trying to illegally keep generic versions of the blockbuster testosterone replacement drug AndroGel off the market.
Ruling in an antitrust case by the Federal Trade Commission, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said the lower court judge who ordered the disgorgement by AbbVie(ABBV) and Besins Healthcare Inc lacked authority under federal law.
But in a 94-page decision, Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman also said the lower court judge correctly found AbbVie(ABBV) and privately-held Besins liable for monopolization for filing a sham, "objectively baseless" patent infringement lawsuit in 2011 against Perrigo Co(PRGO) to delay generic AndroGel.
Hardiman also reinstated an FTC claim concerning AbbVie's(ABBV) settlement of a similar case against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd(TEVA) and a related agreement letting the Israeli drugmaker sell a generic version of its cholesterol drug TriCor.
Both patent lawsuits had been brought by Abbott Laboratories, which split off North Chicago, Illinois-based AbbVie(ABBV) at the beginning of 2013.
The FTC case is part of that regulator's long fight against "pay for delay" settlements, where brand-name drugmakers pay rivals to postpone releasing cheaper generics in exchange for resolving patent lawsuits.
Wednesday's 3-0 decision returned the case to U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle in Philadelphia.
AbbVie (ABBV) and lawyers for Besins did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The FTC did not immediately respond to similar requests. Teva is no longer a defendant.
Annual U.S. net sales for AndroGel sometimes topped $1 billion before generic versions entered the U.S. market in 2015. Net sales totaled $172 million last year.
The case is Federal Trade Commission v AbbVie Inc(ABBV) et al, 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 18-2748. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum and David Gregorio)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters
AI
