Takeda Loses Antitrust Appeal Over Diabetes Drug Patent Listing

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. must face antitrust litigation over its alleged scheme to delay generic versions of the diabetes drug Actos by exaggerating the scope of its patents to regulators, a federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled Wednesday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a decision by Judge Ronnie Abrams, who found that Takeda could be liable for effectively tricking the FDA into requiring other drugmakers to challenge Takeda’s patents instead of letting them “carve out” non-infringing methods of use.

The gamesmanship led to a regulatory process strewn with bottlenecks, according to the consolidated proposed class actions. ...