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EU: Pay-for-delay lands drug makers with $580 million in fines

By  |  July 9, 2014

The European Commission issued hundreds of millions of dollars on pharmaceutical makers including France’s Servier for pay-for-delay deals that were found to have distorted the market, according to reports.

Servier and five generic drug makers were fined a combined $580 million for colluding to prevent generic and cheaper forms of medication from hitting store shelves in deals known as pay-for-delay. The medicine under scrutiny is Perindopril, which is used to treat blood pressure issues.

The collusion lead to Servier “systematically buying out any competitive threats,” said European Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, who also called the actions “clearly anticompetitive and abusive.”

Servier itself must pay $450 million, reports said.

Full content: ABC News

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