After a six-week trial following years of litigation, a federal jury in San Francisco handed a resounding win to Goodwin client Teva Pharmaceuticals and co-defendant Gilead Sciences in antitrust litigation, returning a defense verdict on June 30, 2023.
In this antitrust “pay for delay” litigation, plaintiffs’ core allegation was that Teva and Gilead (represented by two other global law firms), had illegally conspired to delay the sale of generic versions of the HIV treatments Truvada and Atripla when they settled patent litigation relating to those products in 2014. Plaintiffs sought damages in the form of alleged overpayments for the medicines amounting to billions of dollars. During the trial, Teva and Gilead presented evidence showing, among other things, that there had been no agreement to delay generic entry in return for a payment and that the settlement had led to early entry by allowing generics to come to market prior to the expiration of Gilead’s patents, which were strong and unlikely to be invalidated. That evidence included internal Teva legal emails from the time of the settlement and testimony from Teva’s in-house counsel, which defendants were able to present as a result of Teva’s innovative election to waive attorney-client privilege. Plaintiffs repeatedly and unsuccessfully challenged the scope of Teva’s privilege waiver and unsuccessfully sought to exclude the evidence before and during trial.
In the special verdict form, the jury specifically found that there had been no pay-for-delay agreement. The jury also rejected plaintiffs’ claim that Gilead had market power.
The Goodwin team representing Teva showcased the strength, depth, and collaborative spirit of the firm. It included lawyers from four offices (Boston, New York, Silicon Valley, and Washington, DC) across multiple practices areas including antitrust, complex litigation, IP litigation, and the appellate group. Some members of the team were involved from day one; others joined in the ramp-up to trial; regardless, the team worked together seamlessly.
The Goodwin team was led by Chris Holding, along with Daryl Wiesen, Joe Rockers, Molly Grammel, and Tucker DeVoe, all of whom had stand-up roles at trial, as well as Brian Burgess, who led the legal team; and it included Alex Lu, Katie Cheng, Ben Hayes, Ashley Drake, Ariel Rogers, Jordan Bock, Maddie DiLascia, Dot Hazan, Tom McTigue, TJ Beavers, Ian Rogers, Natalie Chaney, and Austin Collier. Invaluable assistance was provided by Gail Rosner, Gary Lal, Alpha Pearce, and Paula Dusablon for their on-site support for trial, and Michelle Briggs and Rae Buse provided assistance throughout the complex discovery process.
For more details, see recognition in The American Lawyer’s Litigators of the (Past) Week and Law360.