Member
Chris Letter is a member of Odom & Des Roches, LLC.
Mr. Letter has extensive experience handling complex civil litigation matters in federal courts.
Mr. Letter practices in the antitrust field, focusing primarily on the pharmaceutical industry. He has a wealth of knowledge regarding the regulatory approval process at the Food and Drug Administration, especially under the Hatch-Waxman Act. This includes assessing the earliest date a sponsor of an Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) may obtain final approval from FDA in light of patent barriers such as stays of approval resulting from challenges to Orange Book listed patents by ANDA sponsors as well as regulatory barriers like New Chemical Entity, Orphan Drug, New Clinical Investigation, and Pediatric exclusivities. Mr. Letter has particular knowledge of the interplay between FDA approval and the 180-day generic drug exclusivity, be it as result of court-decision trigger, commercial marketing, selective waiver, relinquishment, or forfeiture under Hatch-Waxman as amended by the Medicare Modernization Act. He also has experience with the impact of Citizen Petitions on the FDA approval process.
Mr. Letter has litigated pharmaceutical industry matters such as King Drug Co. v. Cephalon (multiple pretrial settlements totaling over $760 million); In re Namenda Antitrust Litig. (settlement on eve of trial for $750 million); In re Neurontin Antitrust Litig. (settled pre-trial for $190 million); and In re Prograf Antitrust Litig. (settled pre-trial for $98 million).
Mr. Letter earned a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University of New Orleans School of Law in 2007 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the University of New Orleans in 1998. He joined the firm in 2002 as an office staffer, then shifted into a paralegal role while attending law school at night. He became an associate in 2008 and a member of the firm in 2015. He is admitted to practice in the Louisiana Supreme Court and the several courts of the State of Louisiana. He is also admitted to practice in the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of the United States District Courts, and the Third and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeals.
Mr. Letter is one of the co-founders and original board members of the TDL Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that works to improve life for individuals and communities in need.