Allergan wins lawsuit against Imprimis, but jury awards only $48,500

John A. Hovanesian, MD, FACS

If only there were simple answers to the problem of high drug prices – an issue that is boiling over as the U.S. grapples with unsustainable health care cost acceleration. There's a sympathetic cause to be found on both sides of this lawsuit. Allergan, a long-time innovator in eye care whose social contract is meant to address drug costs, was faced with extraordinary regulatory costs in bringing new products to market and marketing them to physicians. The company argued that it has been undercut by false advertising from a compounding pharmacy, Imprimis, whose non-FDA approved formulations of FDA approved drugs were being sold to patients at far lower prices. Imprimis, a high-quality compounder with an excellent track record of safety, markets its services to physicians in response to growing consumer demand for more convenient (multiple drugs in one bottle) and less costly medications. In the end, the jury showed faint sympathy to Allergan with a $48,500 award for lost profits, which equals 1/10,000th of Allergan's $46 billion market capitalization and maybe around 1% of the legal costs to bring the suit. More importantly, it suggests a path forward for compounding pharmacies and a significant competitive headwind for traditional drug makers.