The US Federal Trade Commission is negotiating a settlement with Elan and Toronto-based Biovail over a deal which the agency said kept prices high for generic versions of a blood pressure medication, according to US media reports.
USA Today said that a consent decree involving the two firms and their versions of the drug Adalat CC could be announced as early as next week.
At issue is a 1999 deal between Elan and Biovail that the FTC said divided the market for generic Adalat. The deal gave Biovail rights to Elan's 30mg version of generic Adalat and the 60mg version it had developed on its own, while Elan agreed to manufacture and distribute the drug.
The settlement would resolve the second Biovail dispute with the FTC in as many months. Biovail settled FTC antitrust charges over a questionable patent for its hypertension drug Tiazac in April.
