It was a bad day for generic drug companies at the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday denied three separate requests from generic drug makers hoping the justices would revisit lower-court decisions the industry doesn’t like. 

Two cases, Hospira v. Eli Lilly and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories v. Eli Lilly, deal with a seemingly arcane decision from the Federal Circuit. Generic manufacturers say the decisions let brand companies sue them over patents they’ve previously abandoned — and that broadly, the rulings will make it harder to get more generic medicine into the world. Insurers supported the petition, saying the lower court’s decision “harms innovation, increases costs for consumers, and inhibits the ability of the generic manufacturers to provide needed medication.” They insisted too that the Supreme Court overturning the decision would amount to “protect[ing] American consumers from rising drug prices.”

In a separate blow to generic drug makers, the court denied cert in Actavis v. Connecticut. The case, which was brought by more than 30 generic drug companies, is connected to a sweeping price fixing probe by the state of Connecticut but it has little to do with the business of selling generic drugs. Instead it is about how far lawyers can dig into personal files during a lawsuit. The case had sweeping implications for industry: so much so that PhRMA, the Chamber of Commerce, and a slew of companies, including GlaxoSmithKline and Genentech, signed on as amicus supporting the generic drug makers.