By Foo Yun Chee

Brussels: French drugmaker Servier On Thursday it lost a court battle against fines imposed by the European Union for deals it struck with rivals to delay sales. Normal copies Its best-selling blood pressure medication Perindopril.

The European Commission In 2014, Servier was fined 331 million euros ($354 million) – and so were generic drugmakers Teva, Unichem and its subsidiary Niche, Matrix (now known as Mylan Laboratories, Krka and Lupin) – for their so-called “pay for delay” deals between 2005 and 2007.

Antitrust regulators Governments on both sides of the Atlantic have for years been cracking down on such deals, where brand names pay their rivals to delay the launch of cheaper generic versions of their drugs.

In 2018 a lower court reduced Servier’s fine to 228 million euros after the company challenged the EU’s decision, saying there were flaws in EU regulators’ analysis. Both Servier and the EU competition regulator then appealed to Europe’s top court.

The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union backed the commission.

“The Court dismisses the appeals of Lupin, Niche Generics, Unichem Laboratories, Matrix, Teva and Biogaran. It thus confirms the decisions of the General Court, which held that the agreements entered into by Servier and Biogaran were market-exclusion agreements and restricted competition,” the judges said.

“These companies are therefore liable for the penalties imposed by the Commission,” he said.

The Commission said Servier’s aim was to protect perindopril from competition in the EU. Pharma Industry argued that Delayed payment deals This will help in avoiding long and costly litigation.

These 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.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Alex Richardson and Mark Potter)