FTC Seeks to Force Warner Chilcott to Keep Marketing Ovcon 35
Faced with Barr Labs' impending launch of a generic version of Warner Chilcott's oral contraceptive Ovcon 35, Warner Chilcott recently stopped shipping Ovcon 35 and tried to convert the market to its new product, Ovcon Chewable. There are no generic versions of Ovcon Chewable, so if Warner Chilcott could convert the entire market to its new product, it wouldn't lose any market share when Barr launched its generic Ovcon 35. Pharmacies cannot substitute generic Ovcon 35 for Ovcon Chewable because they're not rated as equivalent by the FDA. Abbott Labs previously used a similar strategy with Hytrin (tablet to capsule switch) and Tricor (capsule to tablet switch) to preserve its market share.
In response to Warner Chilcott's formulation switch, the FTC filed a notice in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (where it was already in litigation against Warner Chilcott over an authorized generic deal for Ovcon 35) that it intended to seek a preliminary injunction forcing Warner Chilcott to continue marketing Ovcon 35. Unfortunately, the motion itself is not publicly available because the FTC filed it under seal.
Almost simultaneously with the FTC's filing of its motion for preliminary injunction, Warner Chilcott announced that it had canceled the exclusivity provisions of its Ovcon 35 authorized generic deal--a move intended to dispose of the litigation with the FTC. In the FTC's complaint in that case, the FTC alleged that an authorized generic deal between Warner Chilcott and Barr for Ovcon 35 was anticompetitive, in violation of Section 5(a) of the FTC Act.
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NOTE: thanks to a helpful reader for providing information about this case.
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