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EU says investigators raid pharma giants
2009-10-06
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Investigators raided at least two European pharmaceutical giants on Tuesday over suspected competition violations, the European Commission said. The commission "can confirm that on October 6 commission officials started surprise inspections at the premises of certain companies active in the pharmaceutical industry," a statement said. France's Sanofi-Aventis was one of those raided, a company spokesman told AFP. "Sanofi is going to cooperate with the commission," he added. Likewise a French subsidiary of Germany's Ratiopharm, one of the leading generic drugmakers, according to a company spokesman who gave no more information. Belgium's UCB and Solvay, Britain's AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, France's Servier and Germany's Bayer and Merck each said they were not targeted. Officials accompanied by national inspectors were seeking evidence of "restrictive business practices and/or the abuse of a dominant market position," added the commission, which polices competition in the European Union. The commission did not detail the companies or countries involved and stressed that such steps follow no fixed deadlines. But regulators stepped up a sector-wide probe launched in January 2008 with an investigation announced in July into the relationship between companies that patent their products as brand-named medicine, as well as their ties with generic drug producers. Then, the commission said that "unilateral behaviour" by French pharmaceutical maker Les Laboratoires Servier might have hindered the entry into EU markets of generic perindopril, a cardio-vascular medicine first developed by the company. According to a commission report produced in the summer, generic drugs cost on average 40 percent less two years after they enter the market -- and save patients and insurance firms money without compromising on effectiveness. But some companies have in the past been accused of using patent strategies to stop generic medicines hitting the market, or tying up potential competitors in legal disputes. Among the tactics, drug developers were found to file multiple patent applications for the same medicine -- in the worst example uncovered, 1,300 separate filings were made for a single medicine across the 27-nation European Union. In nearly 700 cases, drug companies have also launched patent litigation against potential rivals. On average, such cases drag on for three years -- most lost by the company that developed the original drug, with almost a third settled out of court.
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