More heartburn for the pharma sector

The European Commission has escalated its crackdown on the pharma sector, conducting dawn raids yesterday on the originator pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

The Commission’s investigation appears to centre on alleged “illicit conduct” in relation to esomeprazole, marketed as Nexium. Esomeprazole is a proton-pump inhibitor used for the treatment of heartburn and acid-reflux.

The Commission’s inspections will likely be all too familiar for AstraZeneca.

In 2005, the Commission investigated and fined AstraZeneca for abusive conduct in relation to omeprazole – a related drug. In that case, AstraZeneca misused the patent system and the procedure for marketing medicinal products with the effect of blocking or delaying market entry for generic competitors. AstraZeneca appealed that decision to the General Court, which found against it. That decision has recently been appealed to the European Court of Justice.

The Commission also previously visited various generic pharmaceutical companies in 2008, a number of which have been trying to market generic versions of esomeprazole, often coming into conflict with AstraZeneca.

It is striking that, following its success in the General Court in relation to omeprazole against AstraZeneca, the Commission has chosen to carry out a new investigation over a similar drug against the same company. Perhaps this indicates that the Commission feels that it is now armed with, or is at least able to develop, a blueprint for abuse of dominance cases in the pharma sector.

Lawyers