We are pleased to announce that Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller has been recognized by the American Antitrust Institute (AAI) for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice for its role in In re Amitiza Antitrust Litigation. The honor will be presented at AAI’s annual Antitrust Enforcement Awards ceremony on Nov. 5.
Hangley Aronchick shareholders Barry Refsin and Eric Bloom, along with associates Alex Egerváry, Caitlin McHugh and Cary Zhang, and paralegal Julie Solt, represented CVS Pharmacy Inc. in the complex reverse-payment case, which challenged a pharmaceutical patent settlement that delayed generic competition for the anti-constipation medication Amitiza.
The case centered on a 2014 patent litigation settlement among Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Sucampo Pharmaceuticals Inc. and generic drugmaker Par Pharmaceuticals Inc. Under the agreement, Par delayed entry of its generic product until 2021, while a royalty structure made it “economically irrational” for Takeda or Sucampo to launch an authorized generic, ensuring that branded Amitiza was the only option on the market for seven years. CVS challenged this implicit no-authorized generic agreement as a reverse payment by Takeda and Sucampo to compensate Par for agreeing to delay generic Amitiza.
Following a five-week trial in May, a Boston federal jury returned a sweeping verdict in favor of three classes of plaintiffs, awarding $474.9 million to direct purchasers, $346.8 million to retailers, including CVS, and $63.2 million to end payors before trebling. The total judgment is expected to exceed $2.5 billion.
The result is particularly significant because it is the first verdict in favor of plaintiffs since the Supreme Court held that reverse payments could be found to violate the antitrust laws in FTC v. Actavis, Inc., 570 U.S. 136 (2013). Three prior reverse-payment trials ended in victories for the defense.
Hangley Aronchick shares the honor with co-counsel at Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP; Radice Law Firm PC; Taus Cebulash & Landau LLP; Roberts Law Firm US, PC; Lowey Dannenberg PC; Getnick & Getnick LLP; and Sperling Kenny Nachwalter, LLC.
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