(Bloomberg) — Concordia Healthcare Corp. and Par Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc. agreed to settle U.S. claims that the companies engaged in anticompetitive conduct by agreeing not to compete in the sale of a generic prescription drug.
Concordia and Par entered in an unlawful agreement in which Concordia agreed not to sell a generic version of Kapvay, which treats attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, likely raising prices for consumers, the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday.
"Concordia and Par reduced the number of competing generic Kapvay products available to consumers, depriving consumers of the lower prices that typically occur with generic competition," Debbie Feinstein, the director of the agency's competition bureau, said in a statement.
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The settlement is the latest move by the FTC to crack down on agreements between pharmaceutical companies that restrict competition in the sale of generic drugs. In May, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. agreed to pay $1.2 billion to settle the agency's claims that Teva's unit Cephalon Inc. reached agreements with drug manufacturers that blocked generic drug competition.
Par, owned by private-equity firm TPG Capital, agreed earlier this year to a sale to Endo International Plc for $8.05 billion. The takeover creates a generic-drug business that is among the top five in U.S. sales.
Until May, Concordia and Par were the only two firms permitted by the Food and Drug Administration to market generic Kapvay. In exchange for not selling an authorized generic version of Kapvay, Par paid Concordia a share of the profits it earned on sales of its generic, ranging from 35 to 50 percent, the FTC said in its complaint.
Par offered its generic Kapvay product in October 2013, the only generic version available for 14 months. In December 2014, after learning of the FTC's investigation, Concordia offered an authorized generic version of Kapvay, the FTC said.
Under the settlement with the FTC, Toronto-based Concordia is prohibited from enforcing the profit-sharing provisions of the agreement, while Chestnut Ridge, New York-based Par can't stop Concordia from selling its generic version of Kapvay.
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