AbbVie Unit Forest Labs Accused of Delaying Bystolic Generics

AbbVie Inc. was hit with a lawsuit in San Francisco federal court claiming its subsidiary Forest Laboratories used illegal patent settlements to delay rival versions of the beta blocker Bystolic, a leading blood pressure medication that faces no generic competition.

“Every month of delayed generic competition has allowed Forest and its successors to unlawfully maintain many millions of dollars in monopoly profits” through “willful exclusionary conduct,” rather than a “superior product, business acumen, or historical accident,” the complaint says.

The lawsuit accuses Forest of lobbing patent infringement claims at competitors proposing Bystolic generics, then resolving those cases by offering them ...