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File this under: “If at first you don’t succeed …”

After being rebuffed by a federal appeals court last summer, Allergan (AGN) and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide a vexing question that was at the heart of a controversial maneuver to protect a best-selling eye medicine.

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Their petition has its roots in events that began in the fall of 2017, when the drug maker transferred six patents to its Restasis treatment, which was on track to generate $1.4 billion in sales, to the Mohawk tribe in hopes of thwarting generic competition. At the time, Allergan was facing a conventional patent challenge from several erstwhile generic rivals in a federal court.

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