The Federal Trade Commission late today sued Frazer, Pa.-based Cephalon Inc. over what it called anti-competitive behavior preventing competition to its sleep disorder treatment, Provigil.
Cephalon is paying four generic drug makers to refrain from selling generic versions of Provigil until 2012. It's a practice other pharmaceutical companies have engaged in.
But the FTC says that practice violates the law. It sued Cephalon in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
In a news release, the commission's Bureau of Competition Director Jeffrey Schmidt said:
Today's suit against Cephalon seeks to undo a course of anticompetitive conduct that is harming American consumers by depriving them of access to lower-cost generic alternatives to an important branded drug.
Provigil, a treatment for narcolepsy and shift-work sleep disorder, has been a big seller for Cephalon.
