A company collects more than 100 patents on a drug. It then aggressively asserts this “patent thicket” and enters into settlements with each of the competitors that could enter the market, paying them to delay their entry for years. The company admits that its strategy is to “make it more...

Pharmaceutical markets are complex. Multiple agents, including doctors, insurers, and pharmacies, play critical roles that affect competition between manufacturers and patient choice between drugs. This complexity, however, is neglected in standard antitrust analysis. In evaluating proposed...

Competition is the key to low prices in the pharmaceutical industry. For decades, Americans have benefited from affordable generic versions of brand-name drugs. But now, we stand poised on the wave of a revolution. Biologics, which include lifesaving cancer-treating drugs, can cost hundreds of...

In GSK v. Teva, the Federal Circuit (in a 2-1 ruling) found that Teva induced infringement of GSK's patent. While much of the opinion addresses issues of causation as applied to the facts at issue in the case, one aspect of the opinion raises significant general concern.In settings in which a...

Consumers suffer from high drug prices, which stem in large part from pharmaceutical companies’ anticompetitive games. This essay discusses the crucial role antitrust enforcement agencies can play in addressing pay-for-delay settlements and product hopping and draws lessons from this...

Whenever Congress considers reasonable legislation to lower drug prices, we hear that this will be the "end of innovation." This short piece compares Big Pharma to the boy who cried wolf, offering numerous examples (going back to 1961!) of the industry claiming that legislation will harm innovation

In the area of drug patent settlements, the Third Circuit's ruling in King Drug Co. of Florence v. Smithkline Beechham Corp. (Lamictal) is the most important federal decision since FTC v. Actavis. Since the Supreme Court's ruling, district courts have split on whether “payment” applies...

The term quot;reverse paymentquot; has been used as shorthand to characterize a variety of diverse agreements between patent owners and alleged infringers that involve a transfer of consideration from the patent owner to the alleged infringer. Reverse payment settlements are particularly...

The Supreme Court's decision in FTC v. Actavis has justly received widespread attention for its antitrust analysis of settlements by which brand-name drug companies pay generics to delay entering the market. Much of the attention has focused on the application of the Court's standard and the...