Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Antitrust Series
Schering-Plough Corp. v. Federal Trade Commission: Eleventh Circuit Rejects the FTC’s Position on “Reverse Payments” in Patent Suit Settlements
Abstract
In recent years, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or the “Commission”) has investigated several settlement agreements between pioneer and generic drug manufacturers involving “reverse payments.” In the view of the FTC, reverse payments are cash that a pioneer drug manufacturer pays to a generic manufacturer who has challenged the patent(s) protecting the pioneer drug, in exchange for the generic manufacturer’s agreement to delay market entry. Such payments sometimes occur in the settlement of patent infringement actions. The Commission has been extremely skeptical of reverse payments, viewing them as objective indicia of intent to illegally share monopoly profits that the delayed generic entry perpetuates. It has successfully challenged settlement agreements that included reverse payments involving the market entry of generic Cardizem (hypertension treatment) and generic Hytrin (hypertension and angina treatment).
Subject Area
Antitrust
Recommended Citation
Ulrich Quack, James Burling, Claus-Dieter Ehlermann, John Ratliff, Suyong Kim, Douglas Melamed, and William Kolasky,
"Schering-Plough Corp. v. Federal Trade Commission: Eleventh Circuit Rejects the FTC’s Position on “Reverse Payments” in Patent Suit Settlements"
(March 2005).
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Antitrust Series.
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr Antitrust Series.
Working Paper 55.
http://law.bepress.com/wilmer/papers/art55
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