Law360 has published an in-depth profile of Lieff Cabraser partner Brendan P. Glackin, named a 2021 “Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar.” The award recognizes lawyers who “not only excel in the courtroom in large-scale litigation, but also take on leadership roles at their firms.”
The piece highlights Brendan’s status as a plaintiffs’ antitrust heavyweight, recently winning $120 million for class members in a settlement with Momenta Pharmaceuticals and Sandoz, and $113 million for lithium-ion battery consumers in a price-fixing case against LG, Sony, Samsung, and other manufacturers.
“I find all kinds of antitrust cases interesting. What I like is the opportunity to understand a lot of different industries,” noted Brendan. “A lot of times the conduct falls in the same patterns, but in new places…The health care industry is particularly vulnerable when it comes to antitrust laws, and the industry has a huge effect on the American economy, making it especially susceptible to anti-competitive behavior.”
Since joining Lieff Cabraser, Brendan has taken the lead on massive plaintiff antitrust cases, including bringing the suit against Momenta and Sandoz over allegations that the pharmaceutical giants were conspiring to monopolize the sale of enoxaparin, the generic version of lifesaving anticoagulant Lovenox. “Enoxaparin, which is used to prevent clots and heart attacks, is so commonly used in hospitals for post-surgery patients that it’s available in dispensing machines” explained Brendan.
According to the lawsuit, Momenta and Sandoz manipulated the drug approval process to favor their patent over other contenders — a pattern of bad behavior that Brendan noted he “hadn’t seen before in the health care industry.” Such a tactic is often seen in the technology industry, but Brendan noted that he had never seen it with pharmaceuticals.
“It was an opportunity to develop the law,” Brendan said. “It’s a hugely important drug to hospitals and patients, and this was a fact pattern that no one had ever established was an antitrust violation.”
Hard fought for over four years, the parties were able to reach a $120 million deal in late 2019 on the eve of trial. It was the second-largest indirect buyer pharmaceutical antitrust settlement in history, after the recent $225 million Cipro deal.
Read Brendan’s full profile on Law360’s (subscription) website.
About Brendan P. Glackin
The Chair of Lieff Cabraser’s Antitrust practice group, San Francisco partner Brendan P. Glackin has represented direct purchasers of titanium dioxide in a nationwide antitrust class action lawsuit ($163.5 million in settlements); direct purchasers of flat-panel TV screens in litigation against the world’s leading LCDs manufacturers for conspiring to fix prices ($470 million in settlements; retailers in a monopolization pricing lawsuit against Abbott Laboratories charging that the company exploited the market for AIDS medicines used in conjunction with Abbott’s prescription drug Norvir, and employees in the high-tech workers class action alleging that major Silicon Valley firms colluded to reduce competition for workers.
Brendan has contributed groundbreaking work in litigation against drug makers for blocking access to affordable generics. This includes the blockbuster brand-name prescription drug Cipro ($399 million in settlements), which led to a 2016 “California Lawyer Attorney of the Year” (CLAY) award. Brendan continued his work in the field of generic drugs as lead counsel for Nashville General Hospital (the Hospital Authority of Metropolitan Government of Nashville) in a class-action antitrust case against defendants for monopolizing enoxaparin, the generic version of the blockbuster life-saving anti-coagulant Lovenox, which in 2019, settled for $120 million, the second largest indirect-purchaser antitrust pharmaceutical settlement fund in history, after Cipro.
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