Drugmakers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and AstraZeneca PLC on Monday asked a Massachusetts federal judge to toss claims that Teva purposely delayed marketing a generic version of Nexium by two years, saying the judge’s recent rulings blow a hole in a class of drug buyers’ antitrust suit against the companies.
Teva and AstraZeneca said that Judge William G. Young’s rulings — that the plaintiffs failed to support an argument that first-filer Ranbaxy Inc. could have entered the market with a generic form of the heartburn drug prior to May 2014 — severely incapacitates the drug purchasers’ allegation that Teva agreed to delay marketing its own generic Nexium as part of a patent settlement with AstraZeneca.
8.26.2014