FTC announces settlement with AbbVie over Solvay’s AndroGel

The Federal Trade Commission said it has reached a settlement in the case alleging that the brand-name drug company Solvay and three generic drug companies “illegally” agreed to restrict generic competition to Solvay’s branded testosterone-replacement drug AndroGel for nine years. Under the settlement, Solvay’s current owner AbbVie is prohibited from entering into certain patent infringement settlement agreements that restrict generic entry for certain drugs and contain common forms of reverse payments, the FTC announced. The settlement exempts licenses to enter the market on a later date, compensation for saved future litigation costs up to $7M, a continuation or renewal of a pre-existing agreement, and “several other types of agreements that are unlikely to be anticompetitive,” according to the agency. The order, if approved by the court, will remain in effect for 10 years.

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