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Allergan Accused of Blocking Rivals

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From Bloomberg News

Allergan Inc. has been accused in a lawsuit of using its patents and litigation to block low-cost rivals of its $250-million-a-year glaucoma treatment Alphagan.

Alphagan user Jean Loman, who filed the suit, seeks class-action status to represent others who bought Alphagan since March.

The suit says the Irvine eye-care and skin-care company improperly sought patents in an effort to block generic competition.

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Allergan’s general counsel, Douglas Ingram, called the lawsuit “frivolous.”

The suit was filed after U.S. District Judge David Carter in Santa Ana dismissed Allergan’s patent-infringement claims against generic-drug makers Bausch & Lomb Inc. and Alcon Laboratories Inc., a unit of Swiss food maker Nestle.

Allergan sued the companies after they sought Food and Drug Administration approval to sell generic versions of Alphagan.

Allergan’s “baseless patent-infringement litigation is delaying and preventing the entry of generic formulations of Alphagan into the United States market,” according to Loman’s suit, filed June 6 in federal court in Santa Ana.

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Ingram said Allergan’s suits had no effect on the FDA’s review of the applications by Bausch & Lomb and Alcon.

“No generic version of Alphagan would have been on the market even without the lawsuits,” Ingram said.

Allergan stock fell $1.80 to $61.15 on the New York Stock Exchange.

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