AstraZeneca ruling could mean more competition cases
01 July 2010
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James Nurton, London
The European Commission could be more likely to take action against IP owners for blocking competition, after a court today endorsed its AstraZeneca decision
The EU General Court broadly upheld the European Commission’s 2005 decision that AstraZeneca had abused its dominant position by preventing the marketing of generic rivals to its blockbuster drug Losec.
It agreed with the Commission that the pharmaceutical company committed two abuses of a dominant position.
First, AstraZeneca made misleading representations to national patent offices in various EU member states to obtain supplementary protection certificates for Losec by withholding the date on which it obtained the first marketing authorisation.
Second, it deregistered the Losec capsule marketing authorisations in Denmark, Norway and Sweden to delay and make more difficult the marketing of generic medicinal products and prevent parallel imports.
However, the Court found there was not sufficient...
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