The European Commission introduced Thursday it had imposed an antitrust high-quality exceeding 460 million euros ($500 million) on Israeli generic drugmaker Teva for unlawfully extending patent safety for its a number of sclerosis drug and for undermining a competitor’s work on an identical remedy.
Teva mentioned it deliberate to enchantment the judgment.
The European Commission mentioned the pharmaceutical agency “misused the patent system to artificially extend patent protection” for its blockbuster MS drug Copaxone, whose energetic ingredient is glatiramer acetate.
To try this, Teva performed a “disparagement campaign” towards Synthon, the one different firm with a certified drug in Europe containing glatiramer acetate, the fee mentioned in a press release.
Teva “spread information contradicted by health authorities’ findings, seeking to sow doubt on the safety, efficacy and therapeutic equivalence of the rival product,” the EU Commission mentioned.
It mentioned Teva officers focused medical doctors and teams concerned in drug pricing and reimbursement, “with the target of slowing down or blocking its competitor’s entry” into a number of nations.
“We send a clear message to dominant pharmaceutical companies that we will not tolerate the use of disparagement campaigns to foreclose competing medicines,” mentioned EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager.
The fee mentioned Teva’s actions might have prevented vital financial savings by nations throughout Europe, with different variations of the drug presumably 80% cheaper than Copaxone. Teva must pay a high-quality of 462.6 million euros and chorus from related practices sooner or later, it mentioned.
The EU’s long-running case towards Teva began with daybreak raids in 2019 that led to the opening of an investigation in 2021.
Teva mentioned it disagreed with the idea of the EU’s ruling.
“The company is deeply disappointed by this decision and has been cooperating extensively with the European Commission since 2019,” it mentioned in a press release.
“Teva disagrees with the Commission’s legal theories which are legally untested and, Teva believes, not supported by the facts. The company will vigorously defend its position on appeal and is well prepared financially to mount a defense.”
Last yr, Teva was ordered to pay $225 million to settle value fixing fees within the U.S. associated to gross sales of a cholesterol-lowering drug.
The Department of Justice mentioned the settlement additionally required Teva to divest its business making and promoting the drug pravastatin, a generic model of the brand-name drugs Pravachol.
Source: www.dailysabah.com