On May 18, 2026, after a five-week trial, a federal jury in Boston awarded over $884 million in single damages against Takeda Pharmaceuticals for entering into an anticompetitive “pay-for-delay” settlement of patent litigation that delayed generic competition. With automatic trebling, the verdict is expected to balloon to over $2.6 billion. Not only is the exposure significant, but this is the first time that a jury has found a patent holder liable for delaying generic pharmaceuticals in the 13 years since the Supreme Court decided FTC v. Actavis.  This bulletin discusses the relevant allegations, the jury’s findings, and the implications, including the potential for the Supreme Court to revisit such challenges.

In February 2026, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it “secured a landmark settlement” with Express Scripts—one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers.  Formalized as a consent order, the settlement represents a milestone in efforts to rein in PBMs, whose practices largely escaped regulatory scrutiny until the FTC launched an industry-wide inquiry in 2022. That inquiry eventually led to the FTC bringing an administrative action against the “Big 3” PBMs in 2024, alleging that they inflated the list price of insulin drugs through rebate and other anticompetitive and unfair practices.

On January 13, 2026, President Trump nominated WeatherTech founder David MacNeil to the Federal Trade Commission. This nomination follows from the FTC tightening oversight of Made-in-USA claims in 2025, with the FTC declaring July “Made in the USA Month” and sending warning letters to companies with allegedly misleading marketing.