US FTC asks B-MS for documents in probe of failed Apotex settlement

The US Federal Trade Commision has asked drug major Bristol-Myers Squibb to submit documents related to a settlement it tried to make with Canadian generic drugmaker Apotex over Plavix (clopidogrel), a blockbuster antiplatelet drug that it co-promotes with French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis. In March 2006, the firms tried to stall generic Plavix with a deal pledging to pay Apotex a minimum of $40.0 million to end the patent challenge and not introduce their own generic version to compete with that of Apotex. These so-called "authorized generics" are coming under increasing criticism and scrutiny in the USA (Marketletters passim), with the FTC seeing them as a pay-off to delay the launch of cheaper, generic competitors.