EU Says Drugmakers Blocked Cheaper Drugs
By Aoife White
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European patients had to pay about 3 billion euros ($3.87 billion) more for medicines in 2000-2007 because pharmaceutical companies deliberately stalled the sale of cheaper generic versions, EU antitrust regulators said Friday.
An investigation of major pharmaceutical companies -- including Pfizer (PFE Quote), GlaxoSmithKline(GSK Quote) and Sanofi Aventis (SNY Quote) -- showed they had blocked or delayed generic drugs from entering the market to prevent losing revenue on their more profitable drugs, the European Commission said.
The drug companies used costly legal action to stall generic drug companies from making their own versions of medicines once patents had expired, the European Commission said. ...
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