Friday, October 28, 2005

Lundbeck - Freeze - it's a raid!

Poor Danish drugmaker H Lundbeck. They have recently been raided by investigators from the European Commission looking into alleged antitrust activities.

In a statement, Lundbeck said the surprise inspection is trying to ascertain whether it has 'misused a dominant position or has been involved in anticompetitive agreements in the markets for antidepressant drugs'.

The probe is believed to have centred on antidepressant Cipramil (citalopram), which started to face generic competition in the European Union in 2003.

Lundbeck filed a number of lawsuits against companies such as Ratiopharm and Destin Pharma after they started selling generic citalopram in Europe. Meanwhile, the company has been trying to switch patients to a "evergreen" follow-up product, Cipralex/Lexapro (escitalopram), based on one of the two optical isomers found in the parent product, although this product is also facing generic challenge.

Source: PharmaTimes

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