UPDATE:EU Probes Sanofi-Aventis Block Of Antitrust Inspection
Monday June 2nd, 2008 / 12h09
(Adds background.) BRUSSELS -(Dow Jones)- The European Commission said Monday it was investigating the French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) for having possibly obstructed an antitrust inspection at its premises in January. The commission's allegation centers on Sanofi-Aventis' refusal to let inspectors examine and copy relevant documents until the French authorities produced a national search warrant, the commission says. The European antitrust regulator was raiding the pharmaceutical company's headquarters in France, as part of a wider inquiry into the sector. Under European antitrust laws, companies have an obligation to cooperate with the commission's inspectors, including full access to important documents. The commission is probing the pharmaceuticals sector for lack of competition, worried by the dwindling number of new patents and drugs entering the market. As part of the inquiry it raided the offices of a number of pharmaceutical companies in January, looking for evidence that the companies' behavior in patenting new drugs and litigating unnecessarily may have put a dampener on competition in the pharmaceutical markets in Europe. Sanofi-Aventis was not immediately available for comment. In January, the commission fined German energy giant E.ON AG (EOA.XE) EUR38 million for tampering with an antitrust investigation into the company's business practices. -By Peppi Kiviniemi, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 7411483; peppi.kiviniemi@dowjones.com
Sanofi-Aventis est le 1er groupe pharmaceutique europ éen. Le CA par famille de produits se répartit comme suit :
- produits pharmaceutiques (89,6%)...
