Last week, a Florida federal judge approved a settlement of nearly $15 million to end a consumer class action lawsuit against Shire US Inc., who is accused of paying rival drugmakers to delay selling cheaper versions of ADD drug Adderall. This matter has been contentiously litigated over the past three years.
The case dates back to April 2013, when consumers in Pennsylvania and Florida first accused Shire of creating pay-for-delay settlements in sham patent litigation against Impax Laboratories Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. in an effort to stave off generic competition for the drug. According to the lawsuit, this arrangement caused millions of dollars in damages to consumers and violated antitrust laws established by the U.S. Supreme Court’s FTC v. Actavis opinion.
The settlement administrator received 23, 452 timely claims requesting reimbursement for over 855,000 Adderall prescriptions. The settlement fund is expected to cover all of those claims, with approximately $1 million leftover. The surplus will be donated to national nonprofit organization CHADD, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to advocacy and education for those suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Plaintiffs Jonathan Reisman and Minca Barba were each granted $5,000 service awards. Ten other plaintiffs also received awards of $2,500 as part of the judge’s ruling. Similar lawsuits filed in federal courts in Massachusetts and New Jersey will be dismissed as part of the settlement agreement.
The judge has called the settlement amount reasonable and adequate, striking down three objections challenging the ruling. The judge also granted class counsel attorneys fees in the amount of $1.3 million in costs in addition to 35 percent of the settlement.
The case is Barba et al. v. Shire US Inc. et al., case number 1:13-cv-21158, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The plaintiffs were represented by , Richard M. Golomb of Golomb Legal, P.C., as well as Brian T. Ku, Louis Mussman and M. Ryan Casey of Ku & Mussman PA, by Conlee Whiteley, Alan Kanner and John R. Davis of Kanner & Whiteley LLC, and by Gillian L. Wade and Sara D. Avila of Milstein Adelman LLP.