By John Kruzel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a bid by Sanofi SA to revive its antitrust lawsuit accusing rival pharmaceutical company Viatris Inc of illegally monopolizing the market with its EpiPen auto-injector, a device used to treat severe allergic reactions.
The justices turned away Sanofi’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling rejecting the French company’s claim that Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Viatris had effectively cornered the market through exclusive deals with prescription drug intermediaries.
Sanofi in 2009 acquired the rights to Auvi-Q, an epinephrine auto-injector intended to compete with EpiPen. The company sold the device from 2013 to 2015, when it was recalled over concerns that it failed to deliver its dose of epinephrine. Sanofi terminated its rights to Auvi-Q the next year. Injection of epinephrine is used to treat serious and sometimes life-threatening allergic reactions to foods, medications, bee stings and other causes.
Viatris was formed in 2020 through the merger of Mylan N.V. and Pfizer Inc’s Upjohn business. Sanofi sued Mylan in 2017, alleging that it violated antitrust law by giving rebates to pharmacy benefit managers – intermediary companies that maintain the formularies, or lists of covered drugs, used by health plans – in exchange for exclusivity.
Sanofi said in the lawsuit that it lost hundreds of millions of dollars in sales in the $1 billion-plus U.S. epinephrine auto-injector market due to Mylan’s conduct and is seeking monetary damages.
(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)
