Merck Loses Bid to Arbitrate Rotavirus Vaccine Antitrust Suit

Merck & Co.'s top overseas affiliate must face antitrust litigation for allegedly scheming to keep its monopoly in the rotavirus vaccine market after a rival introduced a competing product, a federal judge in Philadelphia ruled, rejecting the drugmaker’s arbitration bid for a second time.

“To be sure, it remains far from clear whether the arbitration provisions were even intended to apply to the” medical practices that brought the case, Judge J. Curtis Joyner wrote. “What is clear, however, is that the practices were given no notice of the existence of the arbitration provisions.”

The proposed class action, consolidated in the ...