In one of the first tests of the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis, Inc. addressing the antitrust treatment of pharmaceutical patent settlements, a recent jury on Dec. 5, 2014, returned a complicated verdict holding that the defendants in the case did not violate the antitrust laws.

The case involved a mix of purchasers (including consumers) of the branded drug Nexium suing the brand manufacturer AstraZeneca PLC and Ranbaxy Inc. (the generic drug maker), alleging that the defendants violated federal and state antitrust laws by entering into a settlement agreement that delayed Ranbaxy’s entry into the Nexium market in exchange for a large payment. Nexium is an acid reflux medication, also known as “The Purple PillTM," with more than $6 billion in worldwide sales in 2013.