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Judge Won’t Certify Class of Payers in Provigil Pay-For-Delay Case

June 9, 2015

A federal judge denied a request by health plans and other payers for class certification in antitrust litigation involving Cephalon’s Provigil, less than a week after the drugmaker settled with the Federal Trade Commission for $1.2 billion over pay-for-delay claims involving the blockbuster sleep disorder drug.

Judge Mitchell Goldberg of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said last week that he would issue an opinion explaining the reason for his order.

The charges in Vista Healthplan, Inc., et al. v. Cephalon, Inc. et al. stem from accusations that Cephalon protected its monopoly of Provigil through agreements with Teva, Barr, Mylan and Ranbaxy in 2005 and 2006 to pay the generics makers to hold off on generic versions of the drug. This forced insurers and others to the pay higher price for the brand drug.

Attorneys representing the plaintiffs did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for Teva, which bought Cephalon in 2012, declined to comment.

The May 28 settlement in Federal Trade Commission v. Cephalon, Inc. is pending a decision by Judge Goldberg. Last week, he ordered the FTC and the drugmaker to submit letter briefs within 10 days discussing the court’s role in reviewing the agreement, according to court records. — Jonathon Shacat