Niaspan

Niaspan is a reverse-payment pharmaceutical antitrust matter: direct and indirect purchasers allege that the brand manufacturer of the cholesterol drug paid a generic competitor to delay entering the market, keeping prices artificially high during the delay period. Centralized in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in 2013, the docket carries 20 pending actions after more than a decade of litigation — a claim population that splits, as in most pharmaceutical antitrust matters, between direct purchasers (wholesalers and pharmacy chains) and indirect purchasers (payors and end purchasers further down the chain).

For a funder, reverse-payment claims carry a specific and well-litigated legal framework: the Supreme Court's rule-of-reason approach to pay-for-delay settlements has generated over a decade of follow-on precedent, which narrows the liability uncertainty relative to a novel antitrust theory. What remains genuinely case-specific is the damages calculation — quantifying the price differential between the actual delayed-entry period and the counterfactual earlier generic-entry date for this specific drug and this specific purchaser class.

That makes Niaspan a reasonable candidate for direct-purchaser or payor-side inventory finance, where a wholesaler, pharmacy chain, or health plan holding a claim tied to documented purchase volumes during the relevant period can be underwritten with a fairly bounded damages model. Criterica Capital's commercial litigation finance product fits that profile well, and portfolio finance is realistic for a firm representing multiple similarly situated purchasers. A structure and litigation brief on the current claim population is also available for firms doing deeper diligence.

Pre-settlement funding is a non-recourse purchase of a portion of the proceeds of a pending legal claim — not a loan. If the case does not result in a recovery, nothing is owed. Rates, fees, and repayment terms are disclosed in full in the funding agreement, which the applicant’s attorney reviews before signing. Availability and terms vary by state.