Stampa

GLAXO-PRINCIPI ATTIVI


PRESS RELEASE



PRESS RELEASE

Pharmaceuticals: Antitrust says Glaxo has made amends and abuse of dominant position discontinued

Granting of licence opens way for manufacture of generic migraine drugs



The Italian Competition Authority, at its meeting on 8 February 2006, closed the investigation, begun on 23 February 2005, into the Glaxo Group’s refusal to grant a licence to FIS, a chemical company which produces active ingredients, for the manufacture in Italy of an active ingredient, Sumatriptan Succinate, used in the production of powerful migraine medicines. The Authority’s final decision confirms the anti-competitive character of the conduct but imposes no fine, given the particularly important remedial steps taken by Glaxo. During the course of the inquiry, which confirmed the Authority’s hypothesis of abuse of a  dominant position, Glaxo, long before the end of the proceedings, not only granted the licences originally requested by FIS, but also set conditions such as to allow the time to be made up which had been lost because of the original refusal. Those conditions include the granting of a number of additional procedural licences, whereby Glaxo has allowed FIS to save the time otherwise required to research and test an efficient manufacturing process for Sumatriptan Succinate. FIS will thus be enabled to offer the active ingredient to manufacturers of generics as early as if Glaxo had never refused the original request for a licence.
Glaxo’s remedial actions following the Authority’s intervention put a rapid stop to the improper conduct and prevented delays in bringing generic pharmaceuticals to market, thus paving the way for substantial price reductions.
The effects on the market of the Authority’s intervention and the subsequent change of heart by Glaxo have been immediately apparent: a first generics manufacturer which will produce the medicine based on Sumatriptan Succinate has entered the Spanish market and it is expected that the same generic product will enter other European markets as the  relevant patents expire.

Rome, 21 February 2006