3rd UPDATE: EU Raids Drugmakers On Antitrust Concerns
October 06 2009 - 1:09PM
Dow Jones News
European Union antitrust authorities Tuesday raided the offices
of several pharmaceutical firms, as the bloc intensifies its
scrutiny of efforts by brand-name drugmakers to prevent generic
competitors from bringing their products to market.
The European Commission, the European Union's executive arm,
announced the raids but didn't name any of the companies involved.
French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis (SAN.FR) and Teva Pharmaceuticals
Industries Ltd. (TEVA), an Israeli generic drug maker, said their
offices were raided.
A Teva spokeswoman said the inquiry focused on the French
generic drug market.
"We believe that Teva France has conducted its business in a
responsible manner," she said.
While the commission declined to comment on the suspected
violations, it has been investigating the deals that brand-name
companies strike with their generic competitors to delay bringing
generic medicines to market. E.U. antitrust commissioner Neelie
Kroes in July raised concerns that these deals indicate the two
segments of the drug industry have agreed not to compete with each
other.
"There is something rotten" with the deals, she said. The
commission is aware of at least 200 settlement agreements between
brand-name and generic drugmakers, many to delay the entry of
generic medicines to the market, Kroes said.
The U.S. Justice Department in July said it would focus special
attention on such deals.
Generic medicines have become a major threat to brand-name
drugmakers, which have struggled in recent years to develop new
drugs as their older products lose patent protections.
The inspections announced Tuesday are among the first steps in a
commission antitrust probe, which can often take years to
complete.
Merck KGaA (MRK), Bayer AG (BAYN.XE), GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK),
UCB SA (UCB.BT) and Solvay SA (SOLB.BT) weren't among the firms
raided, spokespeople for the companies said Tuesday.
-By Matthew Dalton, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1487;
matthew.dalton@dowjones.com
(Marietta Cauchi, Thomas Gryta, Peppi Kiviniemi and Mimosa
Spencer contributed to this article.)