On Monday, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated legal action against drugmakers AbbVie Inc and Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd, accusing them of unlawfully preventing generic versions of AndroGel - for men with low testosterone - from being sold in the market.

In its lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the FTC has argued that the actions of drugmakers AbbVie and Teva made the users of generic AndroGel pay hundreds of millions of dollars more than the amount actually required to get the drug.

Seeking the court's order to AbbVie to refund the AndroGel users in a so-called 'pay for delay' settlement, the FTC said that "baseless" patent infringement lawsuits were filed by AbbVie against Israeli drugmaker Teva and a second drug firm to stop them from selling generic AndroGel.

The FTC further added that AbbVie later reached a settlement deal with Teva. Under the terms of the deal, Teva agreed to refrain from bringing out an affordable version of AndroGel, as AbbVie permitted it to sell an authorized generic of Tricor cholesterol drug.

Meanwhile, though AbbVie has not made any comments on the FTC lawsuit, the company has countered the agency's claims in an email in which it said that "our patent infringement lawsuits were appropriate and our settlement agreements were lawful, as well as in the best interest of all parties."