To Servier 331 million for having prevented the marketing of a generic. To the other 5 generic producers 97 million: Niche/Unichem, Matrix (part of the Mylan group), Teva, Krka and Lupine

Objective to defend perindropil from price competition (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor)

– Brussels, 09 Jul – The EU Commission has imposed fines totaling 427.7 million euros on the French pharmaceutical company Servier and five generic drug makers: Niche/Unichem, Matrix (part of the Mylan group), Teva , Krka and Lupin. Reason: They concluded a series of illegal deals to protect Servier's best-selling blood pressure drug perindopril from price competition from other generics in the EU.

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(RADIOCOR) 09-07-14

Fine of 331 million to a French pharmaceutical company for blocking the entry of generics into the EU

Bruselas sanctions with 97 millones a otros 5 fabricantes de genéricos

Servier agreed with them to avoid competencies on your drug for hypertension

09.07.2014 AGENCIES rtve.es

The European Commission has imposed a fine of 331 million euros on the French pharmaceutical company servicing pactar acuerdos to prevent the entry into the market of a more cheap version of a cardiovascular drug. Five manufacturers of generic medicines who access these pacts will have to pay 97 million euros in other cases.

The Community Executive has informed these miércoles of the multas millonarias a Servier, Niche-Unichem, Matrix (now, integrated in Mylan), Teva, Krka y Lupine por haber realizado “a series of pacts encaminadas all to protect the estrella medicamento against hipertensión , Perindopril, de la pharmaceutical francesa, de la competencia de genéricos en la Unión Europea”.

Strategy to exclude rivals

The highest fine imposed on Servier, who will tend to pay 331 million euros, which - according to the results of the Commission's investigation - applied a strategy to exclude rivals and retract the entry of the most cheap medicines on the market through a technological acquisition and a series of bids on patents with competing generic manufacturers, to the detriment of public assumptions and patients.

"The server implemented a strategy to deshape themselves economically and systematically with any incentive from competitors to ensure that these remain open to the market", said the vice-president of the Community Executive and European Commission of Competence, Joaquín Almunia, who explained the sanctions in a rueda de prensa.

Perindopril is a very sold drug against hypertension and alone was the star product of Servier, which dominated the market because no other drug against high blood pressure - except for its own generic versions - was capable of competing with the French pharmaceutical company at prices and ventas.

La patente de Servier on the perindopril molecule expired, in its major part, in 2003. In order to reach the end of this patent, the generic manufacturers were instructed to prepare themselves to enter the market, and to save the secondary licenses that followed current - related con el procesamiento y la forma del medicamento- buscaron productos no sujetos a patentes o legally demanded las de Servier, arguing that they unduly blocked their aspiraciones.

In that moment, they found few ways to get hold of unprotected technology and, in 2004, Servier acquired the most advanced technology, with which it will enter various projects from generic manufacturers and, therefore, retracted on market entries, following the investigation of the Commission.

A porcentaje de ingresos de Servier in exchange for no competition

The French pharmaceutical company recognized that the objective of this acquisition was "fortalecer el mecanismo de defensa" of the company and that the technology in question was never used.

Between 2005 and 2007, each time that a general contractor was trying to enter the market, Servers and the company in question signed up for a deal, but this agreement was not the same as those who habitually met between juzgados in a dispute over patentes, sino que con él, el rival "se abstenía a compétir in exchange for a porcentaje de los ingresos" de la pharmaceutical francesa.

This occurred at least five times in this three-year period and the payments actually by part of the Servier ascended to a total of “various miles of millions of euros”, according to Bruselas. In one of the cases, including, the French pharmaceutical company offered one of the manufacturers of generic medicines licenses for your national markets, in exchange for which it renounced the rest of the EU markets and dejase de insistir en lanzar su perindopril.

With these strategies, the European Commission concludes, Servier will be sure that the generic products will remain free from the national markets and will abstain from taking legal measures against them while they last for the accounts.

Related news: https://www.fedaiisf.it/Start/HDefault.aspx?Newsid=9480

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