AbbVie, Teva Escape Class in Generic Niaspan Pay-to-Delay Case

A propose class of pension funds and other “end payers” failed to convince a Pennsylvania judge to certify their case against AbbVie Inc. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. for allegedly conspiring to keep a generic version of the cholesterol drug Niaspan off the market.

The plaintiffs—which include pension funds, employers, and uninsured patients— didn’t provide a reliable mechanism to distinguish between class members and intermediary drug transactions that are excluded from the class, Judge Jan E. DuBois said in a Tuesday memorandum denying class certification.

The multidistrict lawsuit, consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ...