The EU Court of Justice confirms the judgment of the General Court that the pay-for-delay agreements concluded between originator and generics manufacturers were by-object restrictions (Lundbeck)

The European Court of Justice ("ECJ") confirmed the judgment of the General Court ("GC") upholding the European Commission's pay-for-delay decision. The ruling held that the originator and generics manufacturers must be considered potential competitors despite Lundbeck's process patents, and further elaborated on the notion of by-object restrictions in the pharmaceutical industry. Key takeaways The ECJ considered Lundbeck and the generics manufacturers as potential competitors despite the existence of valid process patents. While the ECJ has, in the past, established that these agreements cannot be considered to be by-object restrictions in all cases, the circumstances of the case led the ECJ to confirm that Lundbeck's agreements were to be considered a restriction of competition by