Heim, Payne & Chorush Earns National Honor for Patent-Related Antitrust Litigation Against Big Pharma
Trailblazing firm involved in many of a generation’s largest pharma antitrust outcomes
HOUSTON – The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) has honored intellectual property litigation firm Heim, Payne & Chorush (HPC) with its 2019 Antitrust Enforcement Award for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice.
The award is based on the firm’s role in securing a $512 million settlement with Cephalon – as well as confidential settlements with two generic drug companies – on behalf of a group of direct purchasers who were overcharged by biopharmaceutical company Cephalon for its narcolepsy drug Provigil®.
The HPC trial team was led by firm co-founder Russell Chorush, who is widely considered a pioneer in antitrust litigation against pharmaceutical companies under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The firm’s key role in the Cephalon antitrust class action focused on establishing that U.S. Reissue Patent No. 37,516 was obtained by fraud and that the patent was invalid, unenforceable and not infringed by the generic versions of Provigil® developed by several would-be competitors. That evidence formed the basis for successful arguments to establish the elements of Walker Process fraud as well as supporting the existence of a pay-for-delay scheme to maintain a monopoly by delaying market entry of lower-priced generics.
The firm was presented with the award in November at the AAI’s Annual Private Antitrust Enforcement Conference in Washington, D.C. HPC shared the honor with other members of the legal team including Garwin Gerstein & Fisher LLP; Berger Montague PC; Odom & Des Roches LLC; and Smith, Segura, Raphael & Leger LLP.
Dr. Chorush and HPC have played critical roles in many of the largest pharmaceutical antitrust cases over the last 15 years, including:
- A record $750 million settlement in October 2019 with Allergan related to the Alzheimer’s disease drug Namenda®;
- A $250 million settlement with Abbott related to the cholesterol drug TriCor®;
- A $220 million settlement with Bristol-Myers Squib related to the anti-anxiety drug Buspar®;
- A $190 million settlement with Pfizer related to the anti-epilepsy drug Neurontin®;
- A $166 million settlement with Endo, Teikoku and Watson related to the analgesic drug Lidoderm®;
- A $146 million settlement with Boehringer Ingelheim related to the anti-stroke drug Aggrenox®; and
- A $60.2 million settlement with Schering Plough related to the hypokalemia drug K-Dur®.
Heim, Payne & Chorush LLP represents plaintiffs and defendants in litigation across a broad range of technologies and business sectors. With a wide variety of technical and scientific backgrounds, firm attorneys handle all facets of intellectual property litigation for some of the largest energy and technology firms, as well as individuals and smaller companies. To learn more about the firm, visit www.hpcllp.com.