NY Times: Europe Accuses Drug Makers of Padding Health Care Costs

[marmar]

Europe Accuses Drug Makers of Padding Health Care Costs

By JAMES KANTER
Published: November 28, 2008


BRUSSELS — The European Union accused drug companies on Friday of adding billions of dollars to health care costs by delaying or blocking the sale of less expensive generic medicines.

One common tactic, said Neelie Kroes, the European competition commissioner, was for drug companies to amass patents to protect active ingredients in the medicines — in one case, 1,300 patents for a single drug. Another tactic, she said, was for pharmaceutical companies to sue the makers of generic drugs for ostensible patent violations, which tended to delay the availability of the lower-cost products for years.

Ms. Kroes made her comments Friday while presenting the preliminary findings of a broad investigation into accusations of anticompetitive practices in the drug sector. She also turned her sights on the generics companies, which she said had received $200 million from pharmaceutical companies over seven years in exchange for holding their products off the market.

Patients and health care systems in Europe would have saved at least 3 billion euros, or $3.8 billion, from 2000 to 2007 — or shaved 5 percent off the medical bills — if companies had let generics into the market sooner, she said.

She did not identify the companies and did not say legal action was imminent. But she did say that European officials “will not hesitate to open antitrust cases against companies where there are indications that the antitrust rules may have been breached.” .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/worldbusiness/29drugs.html?_r=1

[elleng]

1. No KIDDING!

Glaxo to Wyeth: "OH GEE, Europe is mad at us!"