Supreme Court justices on Oct. 20 turned away a petition to consider a case accusing Merck of violating antitrust law by misrepresenting the efficacy of its mumps vaccine to the Food and Drug Administration.
Justices did not offer an explanation of the rejection of a petition from doctors who sued Merck.
Lawyers for the parties did not return requests for comment by the time of publication.
The physicians sued Merck in 2012. They said they bought Merck’s mumps vaccine at a price that was inflated due to the company’s alleged anticompetitive behavior.
A U.S. district judge in 2023 rejected Merck’s bid to throw out the litigation, finding that there were disputes over whether Merck deceived regulators and whether its actions triggered an exception to Supreme Court rulings granting immunity to entities and people for actions aimed at influencing government officials….