Lupin fined 40 Million Euros by EU court for anti-competitive drug deal

28 Jun 2024 , 04:55 PM

The European Court of Justice upheld the European Commission’s decision to fine Lupin Limited 40 million euros.

This fine relates to a 2007 patent settlement agreement between Lupin and French drugmaker Servier over the drug Perindopril, which was deemed anti-competitive by the Commission.

Lupin must pay 40 million euros plus accrued interest to the European Commission. In a filing on June 28, Lupin stated that the Court dismissed their final appeal against the 2014 fine.

Lupin has already accounted for the fine in previous financial reports, ensuring no impact on the current year’s profit and loss statement.

In 2014, the European Commission imposed fines totaling 331 million euros on several companies, including Servier, Teva, Unichem, Niche, Matrix (now Mylan Laboratories), Krka, and Lupin, for “pay-for-delay” agreements between 2005 and 2007.

Antitrust regulators in Europe and the US have targeted “pay-for-delay” deals, where brand-name pharmaceutical companies pay generics to delay cheaper drug launches.

In 2018, a lower tribunal reduced Servier’s fine to 228 million euros due to errors in the initial analysis by EU regulators. Both Servier and the EU competition watchdog appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which upheld the Commission’s decision.