California Supreme Court Looks to Take Up 'Pay for Delay' Case

The California Supreme Court is set to review a case on so-called 'pay for delay' settlements that see pharmaceutical manufacturers pay generic manufacturers to secure additional months of market exclusivity for their products.

The court will review a decade-old class-action lawsuit against Bayer over its pay for delay settlement to Barr Laboratories. Barr was reportedly planning to sell a generic version of Bayer's antibiotic, Cipro (ciprofloxacin).

The lawsuit alleges that the deal forced Californians to overpay for the drug in violation of California anti-trust law.

The suit follows years of attempts by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to ban the practice without success. The Obama administration has proposed to end the practice in its Fiscal Year 2013 budget, but the proposal is far from certain to pass in a Republican-controlled congress.

Read more:

California Watch - State court to examine 'pay-for-delay' deals by drugmakers

Regulatory Focus - Administration Budget Forcefully Against 'Pay-For-Delay,' Industry