Audet & Partners, LLP reports that the California Supreme Court has issued an opinion which may leave large pharmaceutical companies vulnerable to antitrust challenges arising out of patent litigation settlements that effectively stifle competition in the pharmaceutical marketplace.  In these "pay-for-delay" lawsuits, manufacturers have been sued by consumers claiming that drug companies paid off smaller generic manufacturers as a way to keep lower-cost generics off the market.  In so doing, the larger companies have been able to maintain higher prices... Read More

Audet & Partners, LLP reports that a lawsuit has been brought in an Illinois federal court on behalf of an employee trust fund alleging an illegal scheme to deprive the market of generic Opana ER, an extended-release painkiller.  The Pennsylnavia Employees Benefit Trust Fund has accused Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., and its subsidiary Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co., of orchestrating and implementing a strategy through which Endo essentially paid Impax Laboratories to delay for more than two years its introduction of generic Opana into... Read More