Bristol Myers Faces Scrutiny For Allegedly Rigging Market On $2B Cancer Drug

Bristol Myers Squibb & Co (NYSE:BMY) and its subsidiary Celgene Inc. face antitrust allegations in a civil lawsuit.

Cigna Corp (NYSE:CI) accuses both companies of unlawfully extending their monopoly on the multiple myeloma drug pomalidomide, marketed as Pomalyst.

The complaint argues that the pharmaceutical giants engaged in fraudulent patent practices, abuse of the court system, and anticompetitive deals to delay generic competition, resulting in billions of dollars in overcharges to drug purchasers.

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Purchasers of this $2.25 billion a year drug—like Cigna—have overpaid for pomalidomide by many hundreds of millions, “if not billions, of dollars,” the lawsuit alleged.

Bloomberg Law published a copy of the lawsuit online Tuesday.

According to the lawsuit, Celgene secured method-of-use and formulation patents for pomalidomide by intentionally misleading the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The company allegedly withheld information about earlier patents from a Boston Children's Hospital doctor and submitted ...