EU fines AstraZeneca 60M euros over Losec
Leading Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca has been found guilty of antitrust activities in the European Union, by illegally trying to extend the patent protection for its former blockbuster antiulcerant Losec (omeprazole), for which it has been fined 60.0 million euros ($72.6 million) by the European Commission.
According to the Commission, the company infringed EU competition rules by blocking or delaying market access for generic versions of Losec over the 1993-2000 time period and, in so doing, kept the drug's price artificially high. It says the firm's actions "constitute serious abuses of its dominant market position" in violation of EU competition rules. In some ways the company may have got off quite lightly, since the Commission has the power to impose fines of as much as 10% of a firm's global sales; AstraZeneca's 2004 turnover reached $21.42 billion).
Company to appeal
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