Allergan, Merz Must Face Namenda ‘Pay to Delay’ Antitrust Class

A police officers’ benefit fund may represent a class of insurers and other indirect pharmaceutical purchasers on allegations that Allergan PLC‘s Forest Laboratories unit and Merz GmbH improperly delayed the entry of less expensive generic versions of the Alzheimer’s drug Namenda, a federal court in New York ruled.

But the court denied class certification for a second theory advanced by the Sergeants Benevolent Association Health & Welfare Fund—that the companies acted anticompetitively by forcing patients to switch to a still-patented “extended release” version of the branded drug before losing all its customers to generic-drug manufacturers.

The SBA alleged that ...