EU Commission Fines Lundbeck And Others Over "Pay-For-Delay" Agreements

On 19 June 2013, the European Commission announced that it had imposed a fine of € 93.8 million on Danish pharmaceutical group Lundbeck and a total of € 52.2 million on several generic medicines producers over their conclusion of so-called "pay-for-delay" agreements in the antidepressant medicine market. The decision follows the Commission's opening of an investigation in 2010 and its issuance of a formal Statement of Objections ("SO") against the parties back in July 2012 (see VBB on Competition Law, Volume 2010, No. 1 & Volume 2012, No. 7, available at www.vbb.com).

According to the Commission, Lundbeck concluded in 2002 agreements with generic producers of its citalopram to delay entry of cheaper versions on the market, contrary to Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union ("TFEU"). In theory, entry on the market of generic versions of citalopram should have been possible when Lundbeck's patent in the active substance had expired. However,