Deals & Cases

Sanofi-Aventis successfully defends antitrust lawsuit

Jones Day successfully defended sanofi-aventis U.S., LLC in an antitrust jury trial in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The jury unanimously vindicated sanofi-aventis’s filing of a Citizen Petition before the Food and Drug Administration in relation to Abbreviated New Drug Applications for leflunomide, a rheumatoid arthritis medication. Sanofi-aventis, the innovator of the medication, sells its product under the brand name Arava. The case had been brought on behalf of a nationwide class of direct buyers of Arava. The named plaintiff was Louisiana Wholesale Drug Co. The Jones Day trial team consisted of partners John Majoras, the Firm’s head of global antitrust litigation, Julie McEvoy, and Michelle Fischer.

This case is the third federal antitrust jury trial that Jones Day has successfully defended in the last 18 months. The other two cases are National Recycling, Inc., v. Waste Management, Inc., et al., No. 03-12174-NMG (D. Mass.) and In re Tableware Antitrust Litigation.