FTC Order Against Impax Anticompetitive Agreement

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released an opinion and final order against generic company Impax Laboratories, finding that it engaged in an illegal pay-for-delay, or “reverse payment,” settlement to block consumers’ access to a lower-cost generic version of Endo Pharmaceuticals’s branded extended-release opioid pain reliever Opana (oxymorphone) ER.

FTC found that Endo possessed power in the market for branded and generic oxymorphone ER, and that Impax received a large and unjustified payment to not launch a generic product before the agreed-upon date. The commission explained that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Actavis decision held that eliminating the risk of competition through a reverse payment settlement itself constitutes an anticompetitive harm.

The final order bars Impax from entering into any type of reverse payment that defers or restricts generic entry, including no-authorized generic commitments, as well as certain business transactions entered with the branded pharmaceutical manufacturer within 45 days of a patent settlement.