On December 19th, the French competition authority fined Schering-Plough, now owned by Merck, 15.3 million euros ($21 million) over what it called a smear campaign against generic competition to Subutex, its drug for opioid addiction. It also handed out a fine of 414,000 euros to parent Merck and another of 318,000 euros to British supplier Reckitt Benckiser for anti-competitive behavior in staging the campaign in late 2005. Policy and Medicine previously discussed the French regulatory environment in other posts.
As austerity-minded governments seek ways to trim heavy healthcare bills, regulators around Europe are cracking down on deals between pharmaceutical manufacturers that delay the launch of cheap generic medicines.
The authority said in a statement that Schering-Plough, colluded with its supplier, the consumer-products maker Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC to elbow out of the market Arrow Group’s generic version of Subutex.
“We are reviewing the decision and considering appropriate next steps,” a Merck spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
According to FiercePharma, the move is just the latest move against pharmaceutical manufacturers in Europe, where antitrust officials have been investigating the pharma industry for several years. The EU competition authority has focused on so-called “pay-for-delay” deals, under which branded pharmaceutical manufacturers and generics companies settle patent fights with cash payments. Most recently, the agency fined Johnson & Johnson and Novartis for their role in delaying a generic version of the painkiller fentanyl.
The French Competition Authority, on the other hand, has zeroed in on pharmaceutical manufacturers’ criticism of their generic competition. In May, the agency slapped Sanofi with a €40.6 million fine for disparaging a generic version of its blockbuster blood thinner, Plavix.