Court OKs Bayer’s Cipro reverse settlement
Executive Summary
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a district court ruling that Bayer's payment to Barr and Hoechst Marion Roussel (now Sanofi-Aventis) to delay their marketing of generic Cipro (ciprofloxacin) does not violate federal antitrust law. The lower court ruled in 2003 that the deal to settle Cipro patent litigation was not inherently anticompetitive because it did not exceed the scope of Bayer's patent (1"The Pink Sheet," May 26, 2003, p. 12). The case, In Re: Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride Antitrust Litigation, was brought by direct and indirect purchasers led by the Arkansas Carpenters Health and Welfare Fund