Novartis and Par Pharmaceutical Taken to Court over Pay-For-Delay

Novartis and Par Pharmaceutical were hit with a pay-for-delay lawsuit filed by Puerto Rican drug manufacturer Drogueria Betances alleging the two companies engaged in anticompetitive conduct that delayed generic competition for the hypertension drug, Exforge.

According to the complaint filed in the District Court for the Southern District of New York, Par and Novartis forged a deal in or around 2011 regarding generics of Exforge whereby Par agreed not to compete in the market for fixed combinations of amlodipine and valsartan — its generics modeled after Exforge — until September 30, 2014, leaving the Exforge market to Novartis until that date.

In return, Novartis agreed not to compete in the generic Exforge market from September 30, 2014 to March 30, 2015, leaving the Exforge generics market to Par.