LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), December 12 (SeeNews) – The General Court of the European Union has decided to cancel a 10 million euro ($11.4 million) fine imposed on Slovenia’s Krka by the European Commission in 2014, the blue-chip drug maker said on Wednesday.
“The General Court decided in favour of Krka, and found that Krka’s actions had not caused a distortion or delay in launching of perindopril on the EU markets and had not breached Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,” the company said in a filing with the Ljubljana Stock Exchange.
Consequently, the court annulled the fine imposed on Krka, the statement added.
“The Commission can file an appeal against the decision of the General Court at the Court of Justice,” Krka noted, adding that in case of Commission appeal, Krka intends to form provisions in the amount of 10 million euro.
In 2014, the European Commission said Krka is among five generic companies that have been fined alongside French pharmaceutical firm Servier for curbing the market entry of cheaper versions of a cardiovascular medicine. The other fined companies are Niche/Unichem, Matrix, Teva, and Lupin.The Commission said the fines were imposed for concluding a series of deals all aimed at protecting Servier's bestselling blood pressure medicine, perindopril, from price competition by generics in the EU.
Following the Commission’s decision, Krka filed a claim against it at General Court of the EU.
($ = 0.88083 euro)
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