Joaquin Almunia (President of the European Union Antitrust)
The European Commission has announced that it has carried out new inspections in the offices of pharmaceutical companies that have allegedly delayed the market entry of generic medicines. Commission officials, accompanied by representatives of national competition authorities, say they carried out surprise inspections on the premises of "a limited number of companies active in the pharmaceutical sector in several Member States" on 30 November. In fact, the EU Commission thinks it has "reason to think that the companies concerned have acted individually or jointly, in particular to delay the placing on the market of the equivalents of a particular drug". If this were confirmed, it would represent "a potential breach of EU Antitrust law, which prohibits restrictive commercial practices and/or the abuse of a dominant market position. Finally, the Commission noted that there is no legal deadline to complete investigations on anti-competitive behavior.
Barbara Di Chiara – Pharmakronos 6 December 2010
