Teva fined 463 million euros for blocking rival MS drug launch

The European Union's antitrust enforcer hit Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (NYSE: TEVA) with a 463 million-euro ($502 million) fine Thursday for launching a smear campaign against a rival multiple sclerosis drug and misusing the patent system to thwart the competitor's attempt to entering the market.

The European Commission said that Teva's abusive conduct had the overall objective of delaying competition and artificially prolonging the exclusivity of Copaxone (glatiramer acetate) by hindering the market entry and uptake of competing, cheaper copy medicines.

When its patent protecting glatiramer acetate was about to expire, Teva artificially extended Copaxone's patent protection by misusing the European Patent Office's (EPO) rules and procedures on divisional patents. Divisional patents derive from an earlier ‘parent' patent application and share similar content, but may focus on different aspects of the invention and are treated independently when it comes to assessing their validity, the Commission said.