NORFOLK, Va. (Legal Newsline) – A Puerto Rican corporation alleges that it was damaged by supracompetitive drug prices because of the conduct several pharmaceutical companies.
Cesar Castillo Inc. filed a complaint on behalf of all those similarly situated on Jan. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Norfolk Division against Merck & Co. Inc., Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Schering-Plough Corp., Schering Corp., MSP Singapore Co. LLC, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals LTD and Glenmark Generics Inc. USA citing the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act.
According to the complaint, Merck sued Glenmark in 2006 over patent infringement allegations and later settled the suit. The plaintiff alleges that "Merck paid Glenmark to stay out of the market for almost five years" and that Merck agreed not to launch its own generic version of a drug called Zetia, a cholesterol medication.
"In the absence of Merck's large and unjustified payment, Glenmark and Merck would have each launched a generic version of Zetia as early as Dec. 6, 2011, and, in any event, well before Dec. 12, 2016. ... The presence of so many generics would have driven prices down to competitive levels," the suit states.
The plaintiff alleges that it purchased the drug Zetia, directly from Merck at "supracompetitive prices" and was injured because of the anticompetitive conduct.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment against the defendants, class damages, court costs and any further relief the court grants. It is represented by William H. Monroe Jr., Marc C. Greco, Kip A. Harbison, Richard S. Glasser and Michael A. Glasser of Glasser & Glasser PLC in Norfolk, Virginia, and Linda P. Nussbaum of Nussbaum Law Group PC in New York.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia case number 2:18-cv-00039-RBS-DEM