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BUSINESS
Bristol-Myers Squibb has struck a proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission to resolve antitrust proceedings related to three of its pharmaceuticals. The company is also finalizing similar agreements with state attorneys general, following a $670 million settlement of their lawsuits and others brought by drug purchasers (C&EN, Jan. 13, page 6). FTC has charged Bristol-Myers with preventing lower priced generic drugs from entering the market to compete with its anticancer agents Taxol and Platinol and the antianxiety drug BuSpar. The company had a decade-long history of illegal and anticompetitive behavior, FTC says, to protect nearly $2 billion in annual sales (see page 13). Regulators say the company abused federal regulations, deceived the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to obtain unwarranted patents, paid a generic rival $72.5 million not to launch competing products, and filed baseless lawsuits to deter competitors. "Competition must be on its merits, not through misusing the government," FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris warned drug firms. The agreements will govern Bristol-Myers' activities in obtaining patents, listing them with FDA, and litigating patent infringement claims. For the next 10 years, the firm has agreed to limits on listing new patents that automatically block generic approvals by FDA for 30 months. However, the company says its intellectual property rights and financial position should not be adversely affected. Bristol-Myers Chairman and CEO Peter R. Dolan, who has been at the helm through a raft of recent problems, has not commented, nor did he appear at a meeting last week to restate financial results for the past four years. The company had to correct an overstatement of $2.5 billion in sales and $900 million in earnings because of errors and inappropriate accounting of wholesaler purchases between 1999 and 2001. |
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