Justices Decline Impax Bid to Weigh in on Drugmaker Patent Deals

The U.S. Supreme Court turned away a fight between Impax Laboratories Inc. and the Federal Trade Commission over whether a deal with name brand rival Endo to delay market entry of Impax’s opioid drug was anticompetitive.

The justices’ denial of the case marks a missed opportunity to review the FTC’s ability to restrict pay-for-delay deals, which industry observers say may hinder competition and lead to higher drug prices. Pay-for-delay, or reverse-payment settlements, are patent deals in which name brand drugmakers pay generic companies to hold off on bringing lower-cost alternatives to the market.

The case challenged the commission’s first-ever interpretation ...