FT.com / US / Supreme Court - US antitrust watchdogs in clash over generics:


An unusual rift between the top antitrust authorities in the US over the legality of deals between pharmaceutical companies and their generic counterparts is intensifying, raising questions for the companies involved in the controversial transactions.

The dispute between the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, which is playing out in the arena of the Supreme Court, is likely to become even messier next week when the FTC takes the rare step of filing a second petition urging the court to take on the issue over the objections of the Bush administration.

At the centre of the disagreement between the justice department, the top law enforcement body, and the FTC, an independent agency composed of Democratic and Republican commissioners, is a complex patent dispute involving Schering-Plough and its drug, K-Dur 20, which treats the side-effects of drugs for high blood pressure.

In 1997 Schering ended a dispute with a generic rival by paying the company, Upsher-Smith, $60m (€46m, £32m) to stay out of the market until 2001. Schering’s patent was originally intended to expire this year. The FTC has claimed that the agreement, as well as similar deals that have since been agreed between drug companies, are anti-competitive.