Antitrust & Trade Regulation

Weekly Summaries Distributed January 23, 2015 In re Nexium Antitrust Litig. Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Class Action, Consumer Law, Contracts  U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

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In re Nexium Antitrust Litig. Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Docket: 14-1521 Opinion Date: January 22, 2015 Areas of Law: Antitrust & Trade Regulation, Class Action, ConsumerLaw, Contracts AstraZeneca, which sells a heartburn drug called Nexium, and three generic drug companies (“generic defendants”) that sought to market generic forms of Nexium, entered into settlement agreements in which the generic defendants agreed not to challenge the validity of the Nexium patents and to delay the launch of their generic products. Certain union health and welfare funds that reimburse plan members for prescription drugs (the named plaintiffs) alleged that the settlement agreements constituted unlawful agreements between Nexium and the generic defendants not to compete. Plaintiffs sought class certification for a class of third-party payors, such as the named plaintiffs, and individual consumers. The district court certified a class. Relevant to this appeal, the class included individual consumers who would have continued to purchase branded Nexium for the same price after generic entry. The First Circuit affirmed the class certification, holding (1) class certification is permissible even if the class includes a de minimis number of uninjured parties; (2) the number of uninjured class members in this case was not significant enough to justify denial of certification; and (3) only injured class members will recover. http://j.st/4Qe5 View Case On: Justia Google Scholar