The European antitrust watchdog this week conducted surprise raids of the French offices of several major generic pharmaceutical companies as part of a growing investigation into suspected anti competitive practices in the European pharmaceutical market.
This week’s raids form part of a wider investigation on the industry commenced in 2008, and are thought to be targeting agreements between originator and generic pharmaceutical companies delaying the entry of generic products into the market, reducing competition and resulting in artificially high prices for consumers. The drama of this week’s raids should be kept in perspective however; the watchdog has only commenced one formal investigation (concerning the perindopril heart drug) since the wider investigation began more than a year ago.
The European Commission press release confirming the raids can be found here.
