The European Commission handed down the 331 million euro ($354 million) fine in 2014 to Servier, as well as fines to generic drugmakers Teva, Unichem and its subsidiary Niche, Matrix
Reuters BRUSSELS
Europe’s top court on Thursday rejected French drugmaker Servier’s appeal against a finding by EU antitrust regulators a decade ago that its pay-for-delay deals with generic rivals were anti-competitive.
“The Court dismisses the appeals of Lupin, Niche Generics, Unichem Laboratories, Matrix, Teva and Biogaran. It thereby confirms the judgments of the General Court that held that the agreements concluded by Servier and Biogaran constituted market-exclusion agreements and restricted competition,” judges said.
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“Those companies therefore remain liable for the fines imposed by the Commission,” the Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union said.
The European Commission handed down the 331 million euro ($354 million) fine in 2014 to Servier, as well as fines to generic drugmakers Teva, Unichem and its subsidiary Niche, Matrix which is now known as Mylan Laboratories, Krka and Lupin for their deals between 2005 and 2007.
A lower tribunal cut Servier’s fine to 228 million euros in 2018, citing errors in EU regulators’ analysis, after the company challenged the EU decision.
The cases are C-144/19 P Lupin v Commission, C-151/19 P Commission v Krka, C-164/19 P Niche Generics v Commission, C-166/19 P Unichem Laboratories v Commission, C-176/19 P Commission v Servier and Others, C-197/19 P Mylan Laboratories and Mylan v Commission, C-198/19 P Teva UK and others v Commission, C-201/19 P Servier and others v Commission and C-207/19 P Biogaran v Commission.