Reverse-Payment Patent Settlements in the Pharmaceutical Industry: An Analysis of US Antitrust Law and EU Competition Law

17 Pages Posted: 28 Oct 2013 Last revised: 3 Jan 2014

See all articles by Michael Clancy

Michael Clancy

Covington & Burling LLP

Damien Geradin

Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC); University of East Anglia (UEA) - Centre for Competition Policy; Geradin Partners

Andrew Lazerow

Covington & Burling LLP

Date Written: October 27, 2013

Abstract

In the pharmaceutical industry, originator companies researching and developing new medicines will typically obtain a range of patents to protect these medicines against generic competition. On the other side, generic suppliers seeking to enter the market will often challenge the validity of these patents or may simply launch their products, forcing the originators to bring litigation to enforce their patents and prevent the generics’ entry. In the context of the corresponding litigation, the originators and generic suppliers often decide to enter into a settlement.

While the settlement terms will vary from case to case, a number of settlements have involved a payment made from the patent holder (the originator) to the accused infringer (the generic supplier) in order to settle the dispute (these settlements are known as “reverse-payment patent settlements”). The legality of such settlements is the subject of a heated debate, both in Europe and in the United States (“US”). Competition authorities on both sides of the Atlantic are concerned that such settlements may unduly delay market entry of generic drugs, to the detriment of consumers and governments’ health care budgets.

In June 2013, both the US Supreme Court and the European Commission (“Commission”) addressed the legality of reverse-payment patent settlements between originator and generic drug companies, reaching rather different conclusions. In order to explain the causes and consequences of this divergence, this paper discusses first the relevant Hatch-Waxman Act provisions and explore the evolution of the US case-law with regard to patent settlements (Part II). Thereafter, we analyse the EU regulatory context and current investigation activity of the Commission and the national competition authorities (Part III). Finally, we compare the US approach to reverse-payment patent settlements, as highlighted by the recent Actavis ruling, to the approach endorsed by the Commission in the Lundbeck decision (Part IV).

Keywords: pharmaceutical, life sciences, antitrust, competition law, lundbeck, actavis, patent settlements, reverse patent settlement, Hatch Waxman, originators, generics

JEL Classification: K21, K41, K42, L12, L43

Suggested Citation

Clancy, Michael and Geradin, Damien and Lazerow, Andrew, Reverse-Payment Patent Settlements in the Pharmaceutical Industry: An Analysis of US Antitrust Law and EU Competition Law (October 27, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2345851 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2345851

Michael Clancy

Covington & Burling LLP ( email )

1201 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20004
United States

Damien Geradin (Contact Author)

Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC) ( email )

Warandelaan 2
Tilburg, 5000 LE
Netherlands

University of East Anglia (UEA) - Centre for Competition Policy ( email )

UEA
Norwich Research Park
Norwich, Norfolk NR47TJ
United Kingdom

Geradin Partners ( email )

Avenue Louise 475
Brussels
Belgium

Andrew Lazerow

Covington & Burling LLP ( email )

1201 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20004
United States

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