On Friday, December 5, the jury in In re Nexium Antitrust Litigation in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts found that an agreement between AstraZeneca Plc and Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd to delay the launch of a generic form of AstraZeneca's heartburn drug Nexium was not anticompetitive (No. 1-12-02409 (D. Mass. Dec. 5, 2014)). The jury's decision was the first time that a federal jury has decided a pay-for-delay case since the US Supreme Court decided FTC v. Actavis (133 S. Ct. 2223 (2013)).

In Nexium, a class of plaintiffs including drug wholesalers, retailers and insurers challenged a 2008 settlement between AstraZeneca and Ranbaxy in which Ranbaxy allegedly agreed to delay introduction of its generic form of Nexium in exchange for $1 billion. Two other drug makers, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, were also named in the 2008 complaint but settled before trial.

For more information on pay-for-delay agreements, see Practice Note, Reverse Payment Settlement Agreements. For summaries of other district court decisions interpreting Actavis, see Practice Note, Actavis Case Tracker.