Hagens Berman served as court-appointed sole lead class counsel for a class of direct purchasers alleging that defendant pharma companies made a pay-for-delay deal over the muscle relaxant Skelaxin in violation of federal antitrust laws.
The direct-purchaser class members accused Pfizer’s King Pharmaceuticals Inc. and generic drugmaker Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. of participating in an arrangement where King ended up paying more than $200 million in “reverse payments” to the generic drugmaker so it would not proceed with plans to develop and market metaxalone, the generic form of the brand-name drug.
On April 30, U.S. District Court Judge Curtis Collier granted preliminary approval to the Skelaxin class action settlement involving the direct purchasers of Skelaxin, finding that the agreement had been reached following extensive arm’s-length negotiations and “falls within the range of possibly approvable settlements.”
In his ruling, Judge Collier stated, "Representatives diligently and completely fulfilled their obligations to the class. They stepped forward and pursued the class’ interests by filing suit on behalf of the members of the class and undertaking the responsibilities attendant upon serving as a named plaintiff, including sitting for depositions on both document production and merits issues and responding to document requests and interrogatories."
CASE TIMELINE
Hon. Curtis Collier, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee approved a $73 million settlement for the direct purchaser class.
