European Regulators Fine France's Servier And 5 Others

(RTTNews) - The European Commission said Wednesday that it has imposed fines totalling €427.7 million on the French pharmaceutical company Servier and five other generic drugmakers - namely, Niche/Unichem, Mylan Inc.'s Matrix, Teva, Krka and Lupin - for concluding a series of deals all aimed at protecting Servier's bestselling blood pressure medicine, perindopril, from price competition by generics in the European Union.

Through a technology acquisition and a series of patent settlements with generic rivals, Servier implemented a strategy to exclude competitors and delay the entry of cheaper generic medicines to the detriment of public budgets and patients in breach of EU antitrust rules, the Commission alleged.

Commission Vice-President Joaquín Almunia, in charge of competition policy, said, "Servier had a strategy to systematically buy out any competitive threats to make sure that they stayed out of the market. Such behaviour is clearly anti-competitive and abusive."

The Commission imposed a €331 million fine on Servier and and a total amount of €96,7 million on the manufacturers of competing generics.

Lucy Vincent, Servier's spokesperson, said, "The European Commission's decision against our intellectual property rights sends a very bad signal to companies of all sizes which make the choice to innovate in Europe. This kind of sanction jeopardises the pharmaceutical companies' commitment to research, and this is thus detrimental to patients."

Servier said it will file an appeal before the European Union Court of Justice.