Drug manufacturers may be held liable for a “false marking” claim under a federal whistleblower law for printing expired patent numbers on their product packages even when they have fully complied with the Hatch-Waxman Act by submitting accurate patent expiration dates for publication by the FDA, a federal judge has ruled.
Senior U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter had previously dismissed all claims in Hollander v. Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc . on the grounds that the plaintiff had failed to allege with specificity that the drug manufacturer had acted with an “intent to deceive the public.”
