Word: drugging
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...damning indictment was part of a 400-page, interim Commission report based on evidence collected during January raids at the headquarters to some of the world's biggest drug companies, including U.S. companies Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, Anglo-Swedish giant AstraZeneca, and Sanofi-Aventis of France. The other companies known to be raided were Wyeth, Merck, Bayer Schering Pharma and Roche, as well as generic firms Teva and Sandoz...
...Commission won't complete its investigation until next spring, but Kroes is already threatening firm action against drug companies that conspire to thwart European competition rules...
...drug giants use various measures to hold up the release of cheaper copies of their brand-name drugs when patents expire, the Commission said. The most common tactic allegedly involves filing multiple patent applications for the same medicine - so-called patent clusters - that stake out an extremely broad claim for a drug's intended use and physical form (for instance, whether as a liquid, a capsule or a pill). In one case, the E.U. found 1,300 patents for a single medicine. Other tactics condemned by the Commission include launching litigation that lasts nearly three years on average, and lobbying...
...Such tactics may help fatten corporate profits, but they hurt consumers, says Ilaria Passarani, health policy officer at the European consumer organization BEUC. "These measures represent a huge cost for patients and healthcare systems," she says. "These major drug companies should be focusing on innovative medicines, but this report says they actually spend 23% of turnover on marketing and promotional activities, a third more than the 17% they spend on research and development...
...Earlier this month, Ernst & Young took drugmakers to task for failing to meet changing market dynamics, such as an increasingly cost-averse customers. The industry faces unprecedented challenges related to patent expirations, pricing and regulatory pressures, shifting demographics, and globalization, yet most drug companies - particularly in Europe - have yet to adapt, Ernst & Young said...