Irish pharmaceutical firm Elan is negotiating a settlement with Toronto-based Biovail through the US Federal Trade Commission over a deal the agency says kept prices high for generic versions of a blood pressure medication, USA Todayreports.
A consent decree involving the two pharmaceutical firms and their versions of the drug Adalat CC could be announced as early as next week, the newspaper reports.
At issue is a 1999 agreement between Biovail and Elan that the FTC said divided the market for generic Adalat.
The deal gave Biovail rights to Elan's 30-milligram version of generic Adalat and the 60-milligram version it developed on its own while Elan agreed to manufacture and distribute the drug.
Biovail acknowledged the settlement talks in papers filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission late last month. 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.