As liaison counsel representing a class of insurers and individual consumers (or “End-Payors”), Berman Tabacco participated in this first “reverse payment” action to go to trial. Prior to trial, the consolidated plaintiffs negotiated a settlement with Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. for $24 million. The payment to consumers, state agencies and insurance companies settled claims that the companies conspired to prevent the marketing of a less expensive generic version of the heartburn medication Nexium.
Along the way, the End-Payor plaintiffs achieved an important victory when the First Circuit affirmed class certification where the named plaintiff did not have purchases in all of the class states and where the class include a “de minimis number of uninjured parties.” In re Nexium Antitrust Litig., 777 F.3d 9 (1st Cir. 2015).