EC antitrust probe homes in on Servier
This article was originally published in Scrip
The European Commission has sent objections to Servier and a number of generics firms in the latest step in its investigation into anticompetitive practices by pharmaceutical companies. Servier is accused of trying to limit generic competition to its cardiovascular medicine perindopril, both by buying up scarce technologies for the product's manufacture, and by inducing generics companies to sign settlements over patent challenges.
The statement of objections is a formal step in the probe, in which the Commission lays out the details of its claims of suspected violation of EU antitrust rules for the companies to examine and respond.
The EC said it was taking the preliminary position that Servier and generic competitors had agreed to limit competition to perindopril, which was nearing the end of its patent protection. It opened its investigation into the perindopril case in July 2009 (scripintelligence.com, 8 July 2009). The generics companies which received the statement of objections were Teva, Unichem Laboratories and its subsidiary Niche Generics, Mylan (through its acquisition of Matrix), Krka and Lupin.
Last week, the EC also moved forward in a similar case, sending a statement of objections to Lundbeck and generic competitors it believes may have acted illegally to restrict competition to its antidepressant citalopram (scripintelligence.com, 25 July 2012).
Both cases form part of a broader set of actions being taken following the Commission's inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector in 2008-09. Similar investigations are also ongoing into Teva and Cephalon, and Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and Sandoz (scripintelligence.com, 21 October 2011).
One of the recommendations of the report that followed the inquiry was for closer monitoring of patent settlements between originator and generic companies. While the number of patent settlements has increased markedly, the proportion that the Commission views as potentially problematic from an antitrust point of view has declined, although the absolute number has risen; further details will be provided in a subsequent article.