First Post-Actavis Jury Verdict Goes To Defendants On Causation Question

After six weeks of trial and two days of deliberation, the jury has returned its verdict in favor of the defendants in In re: Nexium. This trial began as a challenge to the allegedly anticompetitive effects of the settlements of prior patent infringement litigations between AstraZeneca and Teva and between AstraZeneca and Ranbaxy concerning AstraZeneca's Nexium. As we previously reported, Judge William Young of the District of Massachusetts gave jurors extensive preliminary instructions in October. In part, those instructions informed the jurors that this inquiry would turn partially on whether Teva could have defeated AstraZeneca's patents in the prior patent infringement litigation that led to the AstraZeneca-Teva settlement.