California ‘Pay to Delay’ Law Takes Effect Over Injunction Bid (1)

A first-of-its-kind California law targeting “reverse payment” settlements of drug patent disputes took effect Jan. 1, the day after a federal judge rejected an injunction bid by a generic drug manufacturers’ group.

The Association for Accessible Medicines “failed to establish a likelihood of success on the merits of its claims, nor has it raised serious questions,” Judge Troy L. Nunley wrote Dec. 31.

“Reverse payment” agreements, also called “pay to delay” deals, involve payments in cash or in kind from a drug patent holder to a would-be generic maker, rather than in the usual defendant-to-plaintiff direction. The payment often takes ...