In re: Lipitor Antitrust Litigation

Analysis Group was retained by counsel for Pfizer and Ranbaxy, defendants in a long-running antitrust matter involving allegations of delayed generic entry of Pfizer’s blockbuster cholesterol treatment Lipitor (atorvastatin). Proposed classes of direct-purchaser (wholesalers and pharmacies) and end-payer (consumers and health plans) plaintiffs alleged that the defendants had entered into an anticompetitive patent litigation settlement that delayed generic entry of the statin, which increased the plaintiffs’ costs.

A team led by Managing Principal Ted Davis; Vice Presidents Mark Berberian, Jonathan Baker, and Brendan Rogers; and Managers Dylan Kellachan and Anastasia Bogdanova supported three testifying experts:

• Analysis Group Co-founder Bruce Stangle opined on class certification issues and the impracticability of joinder for the direct purchaser class.
• Analysis Group academic affiliate James W. Hughes opined on class certification issues and the ascertainability of the end payer class.
• Regulatory expert Dan Troy opined on whether Ranbaxy’s US Food and Drug Administration application for its generic Lipitor alternative would have been approved earlier had the two companies set an earlier target launch date.

A judge in the US District Court for the District of New Jersey released three separate opinions in the case, each quoting extensively from the Analysis Group experts’ testimony. Two opinions denied the plaintiffs’ motions for certification of both plaintiff classes. The third opinion granted the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, finding no support for the plaintiffs’ claim that an earlier target launch date for the generic would have affected the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the generic.