notices

Drug firms 'block cheap medicine'

Generic drug companies complain it is difficult to get drugs on the market
Drug companies are blocking or delaying the entry of cheaper generic medicines into the EU, pushing up medicine bills, the European Commission has said.
Their actions cost EU healthcare providers 3bn euros ($3.9bn; £2.5bn) in savings between 2000 and 2007, it said.
It added that drug firms used legal action and multiple patents to stop rivals getting to market.
Drug firms said the "perfectly lawful" measures were justified to protect investment in research and development.
Market access
Generic drug companies - which sell cheaper versions of drugs once the patent has expired - have long complained that it is difficult to get their drugs to market in Europe.

Big Pharma invests heavily in the development of new drugs
The Commission said that innovators filed multiple applications to stop generic drugs getting to market - in one case, there were 1,300 patents for a single drug.
The report found that owners of original drugs often intervened in national approval procedures for generic medicines.
There were nearly 700 cases of reported patent litigation and more than 200 settlements between brand name drug companies and generic companies.
More than 10% of these settlements limited the entry of the generic drug to the market.