The California Legislature recently passed, and Governor Gavin
Newsom signed into law, AB 824 (Wood), Preserving Access to
Affordable Drugs (the "Act"). The Act seeks to curtail
and penalize "reverse payment" patent settlement
agreements. Such agreements arise most frequently under the federal
Hatch-Waxman Act, but AB 824 also applies to agreements settling
patent litigation concerning biologics and biosimilars. The Act
provides that the California Attorney General may recover from
defendants as penalties the greater of $20,000,000 or three times
the harm caused by the alleged reverse-payment settlement, in
addition to whatever damages are available to the State under
existing California laws.
