The companies are said to have kept a drug against sleep disorders artificially expensive.
EU Competition Commissioner Margarethe Vestager.
The pharmaceutical companies Teva and Cephalon are said to pay a fine of 60.5 million euros for having agreed to keep a drug for sleep disorders artificially expensive.
This was announced by the EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Thursday in Brussels. Specifically, Cephalon is said to have dissuaded the then competitor Teva with business advantages from offering a cheap imitation product for the drug Modafinil.
No competition
“It is illegal for pharmaceutical companies to agree to compete for payment and foreclose the market to cheaper drugs – even if those agreements are made as part of a patent settlement or other seemingly normal business transaction,” said Vestager. This “pay-for-delay agreement” harmed patients and health systems because they were deprived of cheaper drugs.
Modafinil was a box-office hit under the brand name Provigil, according to the commission for the US company Cephalon, and in some cases brought in more than 40 percent of sales. When the main patents for the drug expired in 2005, the Israeli competitor Teva tried to bring a generic of the drug onto the market that was half as expensive.
According to the information, a dispute arose over secondary patents, which ended in a settlement. As a consequence, Teva decided not to use a Modafinil product. “The consideration was some ancillary agreements and cash payments that were advantageous for Teva,” said the Commission. Cephalon eliminated competition by 2011. That year, Cephalon became a subsidiary of Teva. Of the fine, 30.5 million went to Cephalon and 30 million to Teva.
