CJEU upholds 10 mln euro fine on Slovenia's Krka

CJEU has returned the case, involving Krka and four other generic companies accused of hindering the market entry of cheaper versions of the cardiovascular medicine, to the General Court of the EU for reconsideration, Krka said in a filing with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange on Monday.

In 2018, the General Court of the EU decided to cancel the 10 million euro fine imposed on Krka by the Commission in 2014, and found that the company's actions had not caused a distortion or delay in launching of the medicine on the EU markets.

However, the Commission filed an appeal against this decision of the General Court at CJEU and consequently Krka formed provisions in the amount of 10 million euro, the company said. Krka has paid the fine.

The other fined companies are Niche/Unichem, Matrix, Teva, and Lupin. The Commission said the fines were imposed for concluding a series of deals all aimed at protecting French pharmaceutical firm Servier's bestselling blood pressure medicine, perindopril, from price competition by generics in the EU.

($ = 0.93167 euro)