Court: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
United Food and Commercial Workers Union and Midwest Health Benefits Fund, v. King Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Case No.: 12-md-2343
Leadership Position: Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee
WBE and its co-counsel filed an antitrust case on behalf of a class of end purchasers against King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Mutual Pharmaceuticals, Inc., alleging that King engaged in sham litigation against a number of potential generic manufacturers of the brand-name muscle relaxant Skelaxin. According to the complaint, King and Mutual also conspired to flood the FDA with baseless Citizen Petitions in an effort to protect the Skelaxin monopoly. In addition, the complaint alleged that King and Mutual entered into an anticompetitive settlement in which Mutual received cash payments, among other things, for helping King keep generics out of the market. As a result of these actions, generic Skelaxin competition was delayed for more than 3 years, forcing the proposed class of end purchasers to pay more for Skelaxin and its generics than they would have had there been generic competition. The case ultimately settled with Mutual on behalf of a settlement class.