On June 12, 2015, Judge William G. Young of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts preliminarily approved a $24 million settlement in a pay-for-delay class action brought by direct purchasers and end-payors of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc.'s heartburn drug, Nexium, in In re Nexium (Esomeprazole) Antitrust Litigation, No. 1-12-02409 (D. Mass. June 12, 2015). In Nexium, the two plaintiff classes alleged that a generic manufacturer, Teva, and a brand name manufacturer, AstraZeneca Plc, entered a reverse payment settlement agreement (otherwise known as pay-for-delay agreement) to delay market entry of a generic version of Nexium.

The court found that for both plaintiff classes, the settlement is:

The settlement was announced in April 2015. The settlement does not include many major pharmacies, such as CVS and Rite Aid.

All proceedings by the direct purchaser class and end-payor class against Teva are stayed pending final approval of the settlement, expected in September.

Late last year, a District of Massachusetts jury in Nexium found that an agreement between AstraZeneca and Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd to delay the launch of a generic form of Nexium was not anticompetitive (No. 1-12-02409 (D. Mass. Dec. 5, 2014)). For more information on the jury's decision, see Legal Update, Jury Finds Nexium Pay-for-delay Agreement was Not Anticompetitive.