We represent a range of stakeholders in the health care marketplace, including pharmacies, benefit managers, hospitals and doctors.
The breadth and depth of our practice, spanning both plaintiffs and defendants, places us at the forefront of where health care and antitrust intersect. We also understand the health care landscape beyond antitrust, including issues surrounding patient data and the cost and distribution of care. We have trailblazed litigation challenging how hospital systems raise health insurance premiums and an alleged industry-wide conspiracy to raise prices for generic prescription drugs.
Key cases:
SCL attorneys serve as counsel for a class of businesses and individuals challenging a hospital system’s exploitation of its dominance to drive up health care costs. Mathew Cantor serves as lead trial counsel for the class. To date, SCL attorneys have successfully appeared in the Ninth Circuit three times, securing two favorable reversals.
SCL attorneys served as co-lead counsel and secured settlements exceeding $118 million on behalf of U.S. contact lens purchasers. The settlements resolved an expansive antitrust class action against the four dominant contact lens manufacturers and the largest nationwide distributor for imposing minimum retail prices for many popular brands.
SCL attorneys led teams that tried two antitrust cases for unreasonable restraints of trade and group boycotts in these medical benefit manager cases, obtaining a $40 million jury verdict, where the jury awarded more damages than was requested. Our lawyers also represented clients in follow-on cases that resulted in substantial settlements.
As court-appointed interim lead counsel, SCL attorneys reached a settlement worth up to $28 million for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and a proposed class of health plans alleging that so-called Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli and his former companies illegally monopolized the market for Daraprim. The once-affordable lifesaving drug increased in price by more than 4,000% under Shkreli’s leadership.
In this case, concerning claims of anticompetitive price bundling and tying, SCL attorneys were part of the lead team that tried a preliminary injunction motion and obtained a $200 million settlement for a J&J subsidiary.
SCL attorneys secured a settlement of nearly $7.2 million in a class action against a Florida cancer treatment center and its president for alleged monopolization of oncology services in southwest Florida.
SCL attorneys sued this pharmacy benefit manager for wrongly terminating their client from the PBM’s network. The case was successfully settled with the pharmacy’s readmission into the network.
SCL attorneys serve as court-appointed co-lead counsel for direct purchasers of Merck’s mumps vaccine. Plaintiffs allege that Merck unlawfully monopolized the U.S. market by engaging in a decade-long scheme to exclude competing manufacturers. In July 2023, plaintiffs defeated Merck’s summary judgment motion. Litigation remains ongoing.
After successfully suing CareCore for unreasonable restraints of trade, SCL attorneys were retained to lead the defense of its merger with MedSolutions before the Justice Department, which opted not to challenge the deal.
SCL attorneys represent plaintiff CVS Pharmacy in multidistrict litigation alleging a widespread conspiracy to anticompetitively increase the price of hundreds of generic pharmaceuticals.