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You are here: Home Health & Fitness Healthcare EU to tackle pharmaceutical tricks

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07/12/2008EU to tackle pharmaceutical tricks

Pharmaceutical companies are abusing their position to block competitors, concludes European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes after conducting a ten-month inquiry. The probe began and ended with raids at a number of drug firms.

Ms Kroes says the searches were justified in view of the issue's importance for every European: access to cheap new medicines.

If Europe stopped using medicines for a single year, the money saved would be enough to bankroll Europe's entire financial rescue plan. The question arises, then, whether drugs are too expensive. Are we really getting our money's worth?

EU Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes
Two things awoke the commissioner's suspicion early this year. She first noticed it often takes months before a generic version becomes available after a successful drug's patent expires. She also observed that the number of new drugs on the market had dropped.
 
Ms Kroes came under fire for launching a probe on the basis of such a vague leads. The preliminary results, however, confirm that something is amiss.
 
"You'd be surprised to see how far companies are willing to go to protect the scope and duration of their patents", Ms Kroes said during the presentation of her findings.
 
"The fact is that the sums involved are huge."
 
EU Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes
Tricks
The pharmaceutical industry proves to have a hefty ‘toolkit' of tricks. One of them is to apply at once for as many patents in as many European countries as possible. That way a single drug can result in as many as 1,300 patents. This causes competitors to keep busy a long time sorting it all out.
 
Another trick is to sue a competitor which is planning to bring out a cheap generic version of a drug. The maker of the generic drug is usually cleared of any wrongdoing. But the trial can take years. In the meantime, the cheap generic drug can't be brought out. Such practices also explain the lack of new medicines. The pharmaceutical giants block them to protect their own more expensive and more lucrative drugs.
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