Seven cases consolidated into a class action against AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals L.P. and several other pharmaceutical companies were transferred into the District of Delaware on Oct. 29, largely on the grounds of saving time and money.

U.S. District Chief Judge Colleen McMahon of the Southern District of New York, wrote in her Aug. 12 order granting the transfer that the deciding factor in moving the antitrust class action, filed by employee benefit funds as end-payor plaintiffs, was that it should be held in the same venue as another class action alleging nearly identical offenses against the same group of companies.