US: Celgene settles class action for $55M

US biotech company Celgene has agreed to pay a US$55 million settlement after it was accused of illegally maintaining a monopoly over the market for its cancer treatment drugs Thalomid and Revlimid and delay generic competition, reported Reuters.

In a filing Wednesday, July 24, at the US District Court for the District of New Jersey, Celgene stated said the settlement would end a class-action suit brought against it on behalf of insurers and consumers, who claim they were overcharged for drugs because Celgene delayed generic competition.

According to the law firm Hausfeld which represented the action, the settlement is one of the largest pharmaceutical settlements on behalf of end payors (consumers, insurers, union health and welfare funds, municipalities, and others) in an antitrust case in the last decade.

According to Melinda Coolidge, Partner at Hausfeld, “Cancer patients shouldn’t have to worry about the rising cost of their life-saving medications. We are very pleased to have achieved such a sizable settlement on behalf of those who have shouldered the cost of these drugs.”