Teva Pharmaceutical, the world’s largest generic drugmaker, was fined $503 million by European antitrust regulators for delaying competition to a blockbuster multiple sclerosis medicine.
The European Commission found the company had artificially extended the patent protection of Copaxone and systematically spread misleading information about a rival product. The decision follows an investigation opened three years ago, which marked the first time the EC probed potential antitrust abuses stemming from patent procedures as well as disparaging competing products.
The scheme, which the EC said lasted between four and nine years depending on the country that was affected, may have prevented list prices from falling and crimped public health budgets. The EC maintained this was confirmed by the fact that, once the rival medicine entered the market, list prices decreased by up to 80%, leading to significant savings for health systems.
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