California Pay-for-Delay Law Likely Unconstitutional, Judge Says

California is temporarily blocked from enforcing a law to curb “pay-for-delay” settlements in drug patent cases, after a federal judge found the law is likely unconstitutional.

Judge Troy L. Nunley in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California ordered a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law, Assembly Bill 824, in an order filed Thursday.

Signed into law in October 2019, AB 824 targets settlements in which a brand-name drugmaker pays a generic to keep generic competition off the market for a period. The law created a presumption that these “reverse payments” are anticompetitive under California antitrust ...