European Union antitrust regulators said yesterday that they are raiding pharmaceutical companies in a probe into why so few new medicines and drug makers are emerging.
EU antitrust chief Neelie Kroes said she is looking at the entire pharmaceutical industry and wants to know why generic drugs were so slow to be launched in Europe. Generic medicines are made by other companies after the original developer of the drug loses its exclusive patent rights.
The European Commission said it is conducting inspections at the European premises of a number of pharmaceutical makers - both research-based and generic - including some based outside Europe.
U.S.-based Pfizer, Britain's GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis of France - the world's three biggest drug makers - along with Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Johnson & Johnson's Belgian unit, U.S.-based Wyeth, and Sandoz International GmbH, the generics division of Swiss company Novartis, confirmed that they had been the target of surprise raids and were co-operating with regulators.
Ms. Kroes said the EU is working closely with U.S. officials - "we're not the only one active in this," she said.
The EU executive will examine whether companies were deliberately preventing new firms from entering the market by abusing patent rights and launching "vexatious litigation" to ward off potential rivals.
It said the probe was partly triggered by its 2005 case against AstraZeneca in which the company was fined €60-million ($90-million) for filing misleading information to patent offices to delay generic versions of its ulcer drug Losec for most of the 1990s.
Fewer new medicines are reaching the market, regulators said, one sign that competition may not be working.
Europe spends €200-billion on medicines every year, or €400 per person.
Most of that cost is carried by state health insurance programs.
Pharmaceutical companies have argued that EU action to restrict patents would cost them billions of euros worth of research and development invested in new drugs, which get little or no return if cheaper generic drugs are allowed on the market.
EU antitrust chief Neelie Kroes said she is looking at the entire pharmaceutical industry and wants to know why generic drugs were so slow to be launched in Europe. Generic medicines are made by other companies after the original developer of the drug loses its exclusive patent rights.
The European Commission said it is conducting inspections at the European premises of a number of pharmaceutical makers - both research-based and generic - including some based outside Europe.
U.S.-based Pfizer, Britain's GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis of France - the world's three biggest drug makers - along with Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca, Merck Sharp & Dohme, Johnson & Johnson's Belgian unit, U.S.-based Wyeth, and Sandoz International GmbH, the generics division of Swiss company Novartis, confirmed that they had been the target of surprise raids and were co-operating with regulators.
Ms. Kroes said the EU is working closely with U.S. officials - "we're not the only one active in this," she said.
The EU executive will examine whether companies were deliberately preventing new firms from entering the market by abusing patent rights and launching "vexatious litigation" to ward off potential rivals.
It said the probe was partly triggered by its 2005 case against AstraZeneca in which the company was fined €60-million ($90-million) for filing misleading information to patent offices to delay generic versions of its ulcer drug Losec for most of the 1990s.
Fewer new medicines are reaching the market, regulators said, one sign that competition may not be working.
Europe spends €200-billion on medicines every year, or €400 per person.
Most of that cost is carried by state health insurance programs.
Pharmaceutical companies have argued that EU action to restrict patents would cost them billions of euros worth of research and development invested in new drugs, which get little or no return if cheaper generic drugs are allowed on the market.
