Anti-competitive behaviour hits pharma

Generic drugs being kept off-market

Suspected anti-competitive behaviour across Europe's pharmaceutical industry has now led the European Commission to confirm that it has started surprise inspections at the offices of various companies.

According to reports, officials say they "have reason to believe" that those companies now under investigation are "abusing their dominant positions in the marketplace by illegally delaying the launch of generic competitors.

The Commission, which has thus far refused to identify which companies are being investigated, did in a statement, stress that the raids do not automatically mean the firms are guilty of anti-competitive.

However, the suspicions include backhand deals with makers of cheaper copycat versions of branded medicines that keep them off the market, a practice which is thought could cost healthcare systems in Europe billions of euros.

The EC’s report, published earlier this year, notes how at least 200 settlement agreements between generic and originator companies were known, and that “a good number” of these were formed to restrict generic entry onto the market.

Despite the companies involved having not been formally identified, media reports claim that both Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis unit Sandoz have had been investigated. These reports also included news that Teva Pharmaceutical Industries' Paris offices had been visited "as part of a broader probe into uncompetitive practices within the French generic industry."

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