Antitrust regulators requested drug patent settlement information for 2010 from drug manufacturers to determine if the agreements have delayed generic drug entry into the market. The request for information is the second monitoring session activated by the EC. The first monitoring exercise determined that “pay for delay” settlement agreements decreased significantly once the EC began monitoring the drug sector.
The purpose of the second inquiry is to determine whether these types of delay agreements are continuing to diminish. The EC has not released the names of the companies they are seeking information from, but have stated that if it comes across any troubling information it will institute a more targeted search. The EC plans on releasing a report with a statistical analysis of the 2010 patent settlement agreements in the first half of 2011.