FTC Supports Pharmacies in Bystolic Antitrust Case, Slams District Court Decision

The FTC has filed an amicus brief urging a U.S. appeals court to side with the plaintiffs in a case that alleges Forest Laboratories paid several generics producers millions of dollars to drop a patent challenge for Forest’s hypertension drug Bystolic (nebivolol).

The brief supports overturning a February lower court decision that dismissed a pay-for-delay case brought by CVS Pharmacy, Kaiser Permanente Healthcare Services, Rite Aid, Kroger, Walgreens and others.

At issue is whether Forest Laboratories, which AbbVie acquired in 2020 as part of its acquisition of Allergan, conspired with six generics makers to delay competition for Bystolic by granting reverse payments in exchange for the generics companies dropping their Bystolic patent challenges for eight years.

The generics producers named as defendants in the complaint are Hetero Drugs, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Alkem Laboratories, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Amerigen Pharmaceuticals and Watson Laboratories.

Read the FTC’s amicus brief here.

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