AbbVie Reaches $54.4 Million Settlement Over Its Alzheimer’s Drug

AbbVie has agreed to a $54.4 million settlement for alleged anticompetitive abuse of the generic pharmaceutical approval process involving Namenda (memantine hydrochloride), an FDA-approved drug to treat Alzheimer’s.

The class action complaint was originally filed in August 2015 and was settled on the eve of the trial, according to the judge’s ruling, “after years of hard-fought litigation.”

“Trial in this matter would have required a jury to distill and resolve a thicket of conflicting facts in dense legal frameworks at the intersection of antitrust law, Hatch-Waxman drug approval laws and regulations, drug manufacturing concepts, contract interpretation, patent law, and principles of economics,” wrote U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon.

The company says the settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing and the defendants deny all allegations associated with this lawsuit. A hearing on final approval by potential class members is scheduled for March 13, 2023.