UK suing Servier over alleged generic blocking
pharmafile | June 7, 2011 | News story | Sales and Marketing | Peridopril, Servier, generics
The UK government is taking Servier to court for allegedly blocking generic versions of its blood pressure drug Perindopril from coming to the market.
Health secretary Andrew Lansley wants the company, France’s second biggest pharma firm, to pay £220 million in compensation, according to the Daily Mail.
Perindopril went off patent in 2001, but the government believes Servier paid an unnamed company £5 million to keep a generic form of the drug off the UK market.
The government also says that Servier threatened to sue other generic companies to stop them from marketing their own forms of Perindopril.
The Department of Health confirmed to Pharmafocus that there was a case before the court relating to a French pharma company, but would not comment further on the court’s proceedings.
The DH said it had been brought to the High Court by the secretary of state’s office, but not personally by the health secretary.
Servier declined to comment on the proceedings, but this will be a bitter blow to the beleaguered pharma firm.
Its chief executive Dr Jacques Servier is already in court fighting allegations that his company kept its diabetes drug Mediator on the market even though it had been proven to cause deaths.
Ben Adams
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