McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP partner Dr. Kevin E. Noonan authored an article entitled, “Supreme Court set to review ‘reverse payment’ settlement agreements in ANDA litigation” that appears in the online edition of the Drug Discovery News blog on January 14, 2013. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to grant certiorari in either FTC v. Watson, In re: K-Dur Antitrust Litigation or both over the issue of reverse payment settlement agreements in Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) litigation under the Hatch-Waxman Act (35 U.S.C. § 271(e)(2)). These agreements have been a cause celebre for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) the past few years, which has taken the position that such agreements are either per se illegal under the Sherman Antitrust Act, or (when that position was resoundingly rejected whenever tested in court) should be presumed illegal and scrutinized under a “rule-of-reason” antitrust analysis. The Third Circuit Court’s agreement with the FTC in the K-Dur case created a split in the appellate circuits that only resolution by the Supreme Court can solve. View the article
