Brendan P. Glackin

Glackin litigates antitrust and securities fraud cases. On May 29, he appeared at a final approval hearing before a federal judge in Tennessee seeking to seal a $120 million settlement in a complex antitrust class action involving a key generic drug.

"By the end of the day, the judge granted approval of the settlement and of our $40 million fee request," he said. Nashville General v. Momenta Pharmaceuticals, 15-CV01100 (D. Tenn., filed Oct. 14, 2015).

It was the second-largest indirect-purchaser antitrust pharmaceutical settlement fund in history, Glackin said. The allegations against Momenta and Sandoz Inc. asserted they monopolized the generic version of the anti-coagulant Lovenox, a drug frequently used by hospitals in post-surgical settings whose high profitability is shown by annual sales of more than $1 billion.

To achieve the settlement, Glackin offered a never-before-tried theory of liability, based on claims that a chief scientist at Momenta, who sat on the board of the testing standard group U.S. Pharmacopeia, manipulated the standard setting process and secretly obtained a patent on the essential technique for testing any generic competitor.

"That way, he could prevent anybody else from making a generic, keeping the price high," Glackin said.

In 2019, the court certified a class of hospitals, third-party payors and uninsured persons in 29 states and the District of Columbia. Glackin was appointed sole lead counsel; the settlement agreement followed his successful class certification motion.

In another major antitrust matter, Glackin argued via videoconference June 16 before the North Carolina Supreme Court on a question of that state's antitrust law involving a government entity liability question.

The ruling could determine the outcome of a suit in which Glackin and his Lieff Cabraser team are lead counsel for patients challenging the region's largest hospital system for allegedly abusing its market power to prevent insurers from offering patients financial incentives to use lower-cost or higher-quality services, driving up health care costs. DiCesare v. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority, 156A17-2 (N.C. Super. Ct., filed April 11, 2017).

"We allege they imposed contracts that prevented insurers from offering lower-priced alternatives," Glackin said.

In a long-running antitrust class action over lithium batteries, Glackin, Elizabeth J. Cabraser and colleagues in May 2020 sought final approval of a $113 million settlement with defendants including LG, Sony, Sanyo, Panasonic, Samsung and others for alleged price-fixing. In re: Lithium-Ion Batteries Antitrust Litigation, MDL 2420 (N.D. Cal., transfer order Feb. 6, 2013).

"This more of a garden variety price-fixing cartel case, but it took a long time," Glackin said.

-- John Roemer