Federal Trial Court Dismisses Class Suit Alleging Deceptive Marketing of Nexium

A federal trial court in Delaware has dismissed without prejudice a class action alleging that AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP engaged in deceptive business practices with a misleading marketing campaign designed to induce buyers of “the purple pill” Prilosec to switch to Nexium before the former became available as a cheaper generic (Pennsylvania Employee Benefit Trust Fund v. Zeneca).

Prilosec is a proton-pump inhibitor (PPI) used to treat gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and was AstraZeneca’s most profitable drug, with sales of $6 billion in 2000. In response to the looming expiration of the Prilosec patent in 2001, the company launched ...