Swiss drug company Novartis agreed to pay $245 million to settle a suit claiming it attempted to delay the launch of generic Exforge blood-pressure medicine, Reuters reported.
A judge has yet to approve the settlement. When approved it will resolve all outstanding claims on the matter for Novartis.
Read more: Paris Appeals Court Overturns Novartis, Roche $475M Antitrust Fine
The class-action litigation stemmed from a 2011 licensing agreement between Novartis and Endo International Plc’s Par Pharmaceutical unit. The actual suit began in 2018. As part of the deal, Par agreed not to launch a generic version of Exforge until September 2014 which was long past the patent.
Plaintiffs accused Novartis and Par of entering an illegal “reverse payment” agreement to delay launches of less expensive, generic versions of Exforge, which treats hypertension to lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of strokes.
In 2020, the Swiss pharma agreed to a $729 million settlement to end litigation alleging that it used sham speaker programs and events to offer kickbacks to doctors to boost prescription of its drugs, including Exforge.
