A FISTFUL OF EUROS: EU COMPETITION POLICY AND REVERSE PAYMENTS IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRYPatent Settlement Agreements • January 23rd, 2015
Patent settlement agreements (PSAs) are contracts concluded to put an end to a dispute on the validity or the scope of a patent. Reverse payments or “pay- for-delay” agreements are PSAs which stipulate a payment from the patentee to those who challenge the patent. Patent-intensive industries, such as the phar- maceutical industry, provide fertile ground for these agreements. The recent decisions of the EU Commission in Lundbeck, Johnson C Johnson and Servier1 have ultimately brought the problematic relation between reverse payments and EU competition policy to the fore.
