The New York Times has the story:

The Justice Department is investigating whether a deal involving two big pharmaceutical companies and a generic drug maker thwarted a potentially lower-priced competitor for the blood thinner Plavix, one of the world’s top-selling drugs. …

Initially, Sanofi and Bristol had sued to block Apotex’s version on the ground that it violated their patent, and a trial had been scheduled to begin last month in New York. But the companies announced in March that the patent lawsuit had been settled under terms that would have involved a payment to Apotex and an agreement that the company not sell its generic version until September 2011, eight months before the United States patent for Plavix was set to expire.

This is just two paragraphs from a detailed article.  As they saying goes, read the whole thing …

There’s also a story on the same topic at the Globe & Mail.