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【drug-news】欧盟官方突袭大药厂寻找阻碍仿制药
European Officals Raid Big Pharma in Generics Probe
Posted by Jacob Goldstein
Pharma Raid!
European Commission officials raided the offices of GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis and AstraZeneca as part of a broad probe into possible industry efforts to delay the arrival of generic medicines, the FT reports. The WSJ adds this morning that Pfizer was also raided.
The investigation is not targeting “particular companies or cases,” nor is it “based on specific evidence of wrongdoing,” Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition Policy, said in a prepared statement.
Still, she said yesterday’s “surprise inspections,” which likely included more companies than have so far been identified, were necessary because inspectors sought information — such as settlement agreements regarding intellectual property disputes — that can “be easily withheld, concealed or destroyed.”
The probe will examine whether industry agreements infringe the EC Treaty’s prohibition on restrictive business practices, and whether companies have created “artificial barriers to innovative or generic product entry, through the misuse of patent rights, vexatious litigation or other means,” Kroes said.
The inquiry could hardly come at a worse time for the the industry, which is facing both the loss of patent protection on key blockbusters and a lack of promising new drugs.
A spokesman for the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, whose members include Glaxo, Sanofi and AstraZeneca, told the Health Blog the group is working on a statement in response to the probe. We’ll update this post once that statement’s available.
Update: EFPIA just emailed us a statement that says the group “hopes that this inquiry will enable the Commission to better understand the nature and process of innovation in the pharmaceutical sector and the importance of intellectual property rights in driving pharmaceutical innovation.” [标签:content1][标签:content2]
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-08-12 02:19
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