On September 1, 2020, Chief Judge William E. Smith of the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island granted final approval to a $120 million settlement of antitrust claims asserted on behalf of a certified class of direct purchasers of the drugs Loestrin 24 Fe and Minastrin 24 Fe. See In re Loestrin 24 Fe Antitrust Litigation, Civ. No. 13-md-02472 (D.R.I. Sept. 1, 2020), ECF No. 1462. Faruqi & Faruqi, LLP served as co-lead counsel on the case. In remarks at a hearing on August 27, Chief Judge Smith praised counsels’ work, stating “[t]he level of representation of all parties in terms of the sophistication of counsel, was, in my view, of the highest levels. I can’t imagine a case in which there was really a higher quality of representation across the board than this one.”
The antitrust case alleged that the pharmaceutical manufacturer Warner Chilcott engaged in patent fraud to gain protection for Loestrin 24 Fe, paid off would-be competitor Watson to delay its launch of less expensive generic Loestrin 24 Fe, and then finally discontinued Loestrin 24 Fe and switched the market to Minastrin 24 Fe before generic versions of Loestrin 24 Fe could launch. For more information on the settlement, please visit https://www.loestrin24antitrustlitigation.com.