European Commission Raids Pharmaceutical Offices
The European Commission conducted a series of early-morning raids on major pharmaceutical company offices in Europe on Thursday. This was part of an investigation into he companies preventing important medicine from being released and accusations of anti-competitive behavior.
It is the first time a so-called EU sectoral inquiry has begun with surprise inspections of companies, and Neelie Kroes, competition commissioner, made plain this was to prevent “highly confidential” information being “withheld, concealed or destroyed”.
She said the groups, selected according to 40 criteria including size, might hide or shred thousands of documents. They include generic drug-makers and subsidiaries of non-European groups.
Some of the companies raided included GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis, Pfizer and Merck. Hopefully this will bring to light some of the unfair business practices that these companies engage in, and perhaps lead the way for better, more efficient drugs to be released into the market. (via GNN)
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