EU Commission focus now on Servier and others re-perindopril antitrust issues

The European Commission has informed French independent pharmaceutical company Servier and several of its generic competitors of its objections against practices potentially delaying the generic entry of perindopril, a cardiovascular drug. The move follows similar action last week relating to Danish firm Lundbeck’s so-called pay-for-delay deals for citalopram (The Pharma Letter July 26).

At this stage, the Commission takes the view that the patent settlement agreements concluded by Servier with Niche/Unichem, Matrix (now Mylan Laboratories), Teva, Krka and Lupin, as well as Servier's acquisition of key competing technologies were aimed at delaying or preventing the market entry of cheap generic versions of perindopril, in violation of European Union antitrust rules. The sending of a statement of objections does not prejudge the final outcome of the investigation.

In its statement of objections, the Commission takes the preliminary view that Servier and generic competitors had agreed to limit competition to perindopril and that, as part of a comprehensive strategy, Servier had acquired competing technologies. These practices could have aimed at preserving Servier's position with regard to perindopril, which was about to reach the end of its patent protection.