BRUSSELS, June 19 (UPI) -- Antitrust regulators in Europe said they had fined several drug companies $195 million for conspiring to delay bringing a generic drug to market.
The New York Times reported Wednesday the companies fined included Danish drugmaker Lundbeck and German pharmaceutical firm Merck.
The European Commission's antitrust division said the companies formed an agreement in 2002 to delay producing a generic version of the drug Citalopram, which limited options for the consumer and kept retail prices artificially high.
"Substantial payments and other inducements from Lundbeck amounting to tens of millions of euros," were used to persuade the generic companies from putting a cheaper product on the market, the European Commission said.
In a statement, the commission said the companies, including Ranbaxy Laboratories, Arrow Group and Zoetis Products, formed a "club" and that there was "a pile of $$$ to be shared among the participants."
The commission also said Lundbeck purchased generic versions of the drug from other companies "for the sole purpose of destroying it."
"It is unacceptable that a company pays off its competitors to stay out of its market and delay the entry of cheaper medicines," said Joaquin Almunia, the European competition commissioner in a statement.
"Agreements of this type directly harm patients and national health systems, which are already under tight budgetary constraints," he said.
The issue is also making news in the United States, where the Supreme Court recently recently ruled drug companies could be sued by federal regulators over a "pay to delay" arrangement.
Almunia applauded the Supreme Court decision and said the European Court of Justice, should also review the issue, the Times said.
