The EU Perspective: Lundbeck

Lundbeck held various patents relating to citalopram, both in respect of the substance itself and in respect of various production processes. When the substance patent expired, Lundbeck and the generic manufacturers entered into talks on whether or not certain alternative manufacturing methods infringed the process patents. Lundbeck then entered into settlement agreements with Alpharma (now part of Zoetis), Merck KGaA/Generics UK (now part of Mylan), Arrow (now part of Actavis), and Ranbaxy providing that, against a payment, these would not bring generic versions of citalopram on the market for the duration of the agreements. Because of the payment, such agreements are aslso referred to as "reverse payment" agreements.