REMICADE Antitrust Settlement Receives Final Approval

In 2017, three indirect-purchaser antitrust class actions were filed against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Biotech, Inc., alleging that they engaged in anticompetitive conduct relating to the sale and marketing of J&J's REMICADE (infliximab). The class actions were brought by employee welfare benefit plans, specifically the National Employees Health Plan, the Welfare Fund of Plumbers Local Union No. 200, and the Local 295 IBT Employer Group Welfare Fund. The class action cases brought by the welfare benefit plans followed an earlier antitrust complaint filed by Pfizer against J&J and Janssen. The class action plaintiffs alleged that J&J "worked to suppress competition and raise prices to purchases of [REMICADE] by imposing a web of exclusionary contracts on both health insurers and healthcare providers." Further, the complaints alleged that, when Pfizer launched its competing INFLECTRA (infliximab-dyyb) in 2016, J&J "deployed improper exclusionary tactics to maintain