AstraZeneca Beats Back Legal Challenge by Pharmacies

AstraZeneca has scored a legal victory in an antitrust case filed by a number of retail pharmacy chains over the company’s heartburn drugs Prilosec and Nexium.

The plaintiffs — Walgreen’s, Rite Aid, Meijer, Louisiana Wholesale Drug and Burlington Drug — alleged that AstraZeneca deliberately switched market demand from the prescription version of Prilosec (omeprazole magnesium) to an OTC version and Nexium (esomeprazole magnesium).

At the time of the “switch,” Prilosec’s patent was about to expire, but Nexium’s patent was good for several more years.

In dismissing the case, Judge Richard Roberts of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia held that the plaintiffs had “fail[ed] to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.”

The news came on the heels of a setback for AstraZeneca, in which the Montgomery County, Ala., Circuit Court fined the company $40 million in compensatory damages and $175 million in punitive damages for making false and misleading reports of prices for drugs reimbursed by the state Medicaid agency. AstraZeneca said it planned to appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court.