In 2017, three indirect-purchaser antitrust class actions were filed against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Biotech, Inc., alleging that they engaged in anticompetitive conduct relating to the sale and marketing of J&J’s REMICADE (infliximab). The class actions were brought by employee welfare benefit plans, specifically the National Employees Health Plan,…
We previously reported on Regeneron’s antitrust suit against Amgen in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Amgen recently filed a motion to dismiss Regeneron’s Complaint and a motion to stay the case. The case concerns Regeneron’s allegation that Amgen has violated antitrust law by engaging “in a…
The Seventh Circuit issued this week a long-awaited opinion in the HUMIRA antitrust litigation, UFCW Local 1500 Welfare Fund v. AbbVie Inc., Case No. 20-2402. The appeal is from the Northern District of Illinois’s dismissal of a proposed class action alleging that AbbVie, Inc. created a “patent thicket” around HUMIRA to block…
As we close out another calendar year, we look back at the top legal developments of 2021 that could influence the market for biologics and biosimilars. There were many interesting decisions and other developments in district court, at the Federal Circuit, at the PTAB, and even at the ITC. Biosimilars…
On July 20, 2021, after nearly four years of litigation, Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer have agreed to dismiss all claims asserted in the antitrust suit brought by Pfizer in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania regarding Remicade (infliximab). Remicade is an immunosuppressant that is used to treat Crohn’s disease,…
We have previously reported on the class action suit against AbbVie alleging misconduct and antitrust violations in connection with AbbVie’s assertion of its patents against biosimilar manufacturers to prevent the sale of biosimilar versions of Humira® (adalimumab) in the United States. On June 8, 2020, in a Memorandum and Opinion…
We have been covering Pfizer’s antitrust suit against Johnson & Johnson, the manufacturer of REMICADE (infliximab), as well as a related antitrust litigation filed by retailers Walgreen and Kroger Co. and direct and indirect purchasers of Remicade. The cases generally allege that Johnson & Johnson excluded Pfizer’s infliximab biosimilar from the market through anticompetitive bundling and rebate penalties…
On March 18, 2019, UFCW Local 1500 Welfare Fund, a New-York based grocery union, filed a putative class-action lawsuit against AbbVie and seven adalimumab biosimilar manufacturers alleging misconduct and antitrust violations in connection with AbbVie’s assertion of patents to prevent the sale of biosimilar versions of Humira® in the United States….
The European Commission has released a report summarizing the European Commission and the national competition authorities’ work to enforce European Union antitrust and merger rules in the pharmaceutical space. The report notes that, by monitoring the pharmaceutical market to ensure that price competition for pharmaceuticals is not artificially reduced or eliminated, and…
The District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has denied Johnson & Johnson and Janssen’s (“J&J”) motion to dismiss antitrust claims filed by Walgreens and Kroger concerning sales of J&J’s Remicade. In the case, the retailers allege antitrust injury based on higher prices paid to distributors Amerisource Bergen and Cardinal…