Constantine Cannon is nationally recognized for its experience in prosecuting and defending complex, bet-the-company healthcare and pharmaceutical antitrust cases. We are regularly lead trial counsel, and our pharmaceutical antitrust lawyers have frequently represented healthcare and pharmaceutical clients in investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, and state attorneys general. We also frequently partner with other law firms that seek our antitrust expertise for their clients. Constantine Cannon has represented healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, employers and consumers on various health care antitrust issues.
We also provide strategic advice on merger review, joint ventures, and other collaborative associations such as IPAs, intellectual property licensing agreements, and distribution agreements.
Our firm is currently litigating a landmark, high-profile antitrust class action, Sidibe et al. v. Sutter Health, on behalf of a certified class of millions of businesses and individuals, alleging that Sutter Health imposed unreasonable restraints of trade that shielded it from having to compete on price and prevented health plans from effectively launching lower-cost insurance products in Northern California. These restraints allowed Sutter to charge health plans higher prices, which, in turn, led to higher health-insurance premiums. In this matter, Constantine Cannon achieved a reversal on appeal when the case was erroneously dismissed. This matter is currently on appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, following a five-week jury trial.
Constantine Cannon also represents a certified class of insurers and self-funded health plans, in its antitrust claims against Forest Laboratories (now part of AbbVie) arising out of Forest’s alleged “pay-for-delay” scheme to delay generic competition to Namenda®, Forest’s treatment for moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease.
The firm has achieved substantial success on behalf of our clients in healthcare and pharmaceutical antitrust cases. Our clients have included pharma giants and smaller enterprises facing a range of highly complex disputes and regulatory matters. We have the resources and expertise to take on the largest cases, and to bring them to a successful conclusion for our clients.
For instance, in Ortho Biotech v. Amgen, our lawyers represented Ortho Biotech, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, in antitrust litigation against Amgen, Inc. in New Jersey federal court over drugs used by patients undergoing cancer chemotherapy. Working with another leading litigation firm, our team delved deeply into the business and marketing tactics of Amgen and successfully argued that Amgen was engaged in monopolistic behavior that harmed competitors and consumers alike. In the end, Amgen agreed to pay Ortho $200 million and to halt its anticompetitive activities.
Constantine Cannon also represented several groups of outpatient diagnostic-imaging clinics that utilized an innovative type of MRI machine in antitrust litigation in New York federal court against a health insurance company “gatekeeper” previously owned by competing diagnostic-imaging providers. We argued that the defendant’s exclusive contracts with some of the largest health insurers in New York were used to prevent our clients and other competitors from providing service to patients covered by the insurance company. In StandUp MRI v. CareCore National, LLC, we successfully brought one of the cases to trial. After a month-long proceeding, the result was a jury verdict in our client’s favor worth approximately $40 million. The remaining cases against CareCore then settled favorably for our clients.
We also successfully represented a benefits manager that acquired a competitor in connection with proceedings before the US Department of Justice.
And we successfully represented pharmacies in successful litigation against pharmacy benefit managers that had attempted to terminate them from their networks.
Constantine Cannon’s deep expertise in healthcare and pharmaceutical antitrust law has also been relied upon by the courts. Founder Lloyd Constantine and the firm were retained by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania as a special master on antitrust issues and mediator in In re Modafinil Antitrust Litigation, a complex, multi-district litigation involving the alleged foreclosure of generic competition for a wakefulness treatment.
Our attorneys are also frequently lecture and write on healthcare and pharmaceutical antitrust issues. The following articles concerning these issues have been published by our team members.
Contact us to learn more about our antitrust expertise in healthcare and pharmaceutical antitrust matters.
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