In the News 7/19

Bloomberg Law: Patent Lawyer Tries Novel Approach to Fight Big Pharma Prices

Bloomberg Law has this coverage of our firm’s Zytiga qui tam case:

A patent attorney is using the False Claims Act to sue brand-name drug companies over extending their patent protections, potentially carving a new legal path for stopping big-brand drugmakers from keeping generics off the market.

The lawsuit uses a rare legal approach. An outside patent attorney, Zachary Silbersher, is alleging that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries, Janssen Biotech Inc., and Janssen Oncology Inc., fraudulently obtained a “follow-on” patent for their prostate cancer drug, Zytiga. Follow-on patents extend an original patent for the same drug that’s slightly altered or delivered in a different form.

The alleged goal, according to the unsealed complaint, was to block cheaper generics—and then charge the government monopoly prices for Medicare patients taking the drug.

Read the rest of the article here.