(Washington, DC) – Interim Attorney General Peter J. Nickles announced today that the District and 18 states have filed an antitrust lawsuit against drugmakers Abbott Laboratories and Fournier Industrie et Santé and its subsidiary Laboratories Fournier SA, alleging that the U.S. and French companies tried to delay introduction of generic versions of Abbott's anti-cholesterol medication TriCor (Florida v. Abbott Laboratories, D. Del., No. 1:08-CV-00155-UNA).  The lawsuit alleges that the companies’ conduct was anti-competitive in violation of federal, state, and District antitrust laws and resulted in inflated costs for consumers and for government healthcare programs.

TriCor is the brand name for Abbot's fenofibrate drug used to control cholesterol and triglycerides.    

According to the governments’ allegations, the companies engaged in a sophisticated scheme involving patents obtained by deceiving the Patent Office and Trademark Office with incomplete and misleading data.  The companies used those patents to bring patent-infringement lawsuits against generic drug companies that were seeking Food and Drug Administration approval of their generic versions of TriCor.  The lawsuits – all of which were unsuccessful – were an improper use of litigation to block generic competition.  In addition, Abbott and Fournier made minor changes in the formulations of TriCor that also had the effect of delaying generic competition. 

The lawsuit, which was filed on March 18 in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, seeks damages to reimburse the District government for overcharges and treble damages for District consumers.  It also seeks injunctive relief to prevent Abbott and Fournier from engaging in similar practices in the future.

"We cannot allow drug companies to abuse the patent process as a means of protecting their brand name drugs from lower-priced generic alternatives," Nickles said. 

The District is joined in the lawsuit by the plaintiff states of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, and West Virginia.