DETROIT (AP) — Drugmaker Forest Laboratories Inc. said Friday it reached a settlement agreement with Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd. over the company’s effort to launch a generic version of the Forest blockbuster antidepressant Lexapro. Caraco had filed an application with the Food and Drug Administration to launch a cheaper version of Lexapro, but Forest and licensing partner H. Lundbeck AS moved to block the drug, alleging it infringed the company’s patents. Branded drugmakers routinely sue generic drugmakers for patent infringement to delay the launch of cheaper versions of their drugs. Under an agreement announced by the companies, Forest will give Caraco patents to Lexapro when other generic versions of the drug become available. Caraco will also take over sales of certain Forest products. Forest has agreed to reimburse its generic rival for some of the legal fees stemming from the patent litigation. The agreement must be cleared by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. While drugmakers have long defended settlement agreements as a way to resolve costly patent litigation, FTC officials have called some of the agreements anticompetitive, because they delay the launch of generic drugs. The FTC has urged Congress to ban certain types of settlements.
