United States Ninth Circuit

In a lawsuit brought by certain federally funded medical clinics claiming that they have been overcharged for certain prescription drugs in violation of pharmaceutical pricing agreements between the Secretary of Health and Human Services and drug manufacturer defendants, dismissal of the complaint for failure to state a claim is reversed where plaintiffs are intended direct beneficiaries of those agreements and thus had the right to enforce the agreements' discount provisions against the manufacturers and sue them for reimbursement of excess payments.

Appellate Information

• Argued 03/11/2008
• Decided 08/27/2008
• Published 08/27/2008

Judges

• Before:  STEPHEN REINHARDT, BARRY G. SILVERMAN and RAYMOND C. FISHER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Patrick J. Coughlin, Sanford Svetcov (argued), Jeffrey W. Lawrence, Jacqueline E. Mottek, Aelish M. Baig and Jennie Lee Anderson, Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP;  Tamara Lange, Lead Deputy County Counsel, Ann Miller Ravel and Cheryl A. Stevens, Santa Clara County Counsel's Office;  Steve W. Berman and Douglas C. McDermott, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP for plaintiff-appellant County of Santa Clara., Benjamin M. Shultz, United States Department of Justice, for the United States as amicus curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• Robert S. Litt (argued), Jeffrey L. Handwerker and Sharon Douglass Mayo, Arnold & Porter LLP for defendants-appellees Astra USA, Inc., AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, LP and Zeneca Inc.;  Alicia J. Donahue and Sara Romano, Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP for defendants-appellees Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and ZLB Behring LLC;  Timothy T. Scott, Geoffrey M. Ezgar and Paul Yanosy, Sidley Austin LLP for defendant-appellee Bayer Corporation;  Paul J. Riehle and Matthew A. Fischer, Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold LLP for defendant-appellee Bristol-Myers Squibb Company;  Federick G. Herold, Valerie M. Wagner and Philip Barilovits, Dechert LLP for defendant-appellee SmithKline Beecham Corporation;  Molly M. Lane and Tera Heinz, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP for defendant-appellee Pfizer Inc.;  Kirke M. Hasson and Colin T. Kemp, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP for defendant-appellee Schering-Plough Corporation;  Peter N. Larson, Jones Day for defendant-appellee TAP Pharmaceutical Products, Inc.;  Fletcher Alford, Gordon & Rees, LLP for defendants-appellees Wyeth, Inc. and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc.