AstraZeneca fine looks fine, says AG Mazák

Of the major news sources, only Reuters and Bloomberg took the trouble to post any news concerning the Advocate General Jan Mazák's Opinion today that the 52.5 million euro (£41.8 million) fine which the European Commission imposed on AstraZeneca for misleading patent regulators more than a decade ago in a bid to block competition to its ulcer drug Losec. There wasn't even a Curia press release. The Commission's fine was upheld by the General Court in July 2010 in a 920-paragraph blockbuster, Case T-321/05, noted by the IPKat here.

According to the Reuters report

"The AstraZeneca case prompted EU antitrust enforcers to start an inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector in early 2008, which resulted in a critical report on "pay-for-delay" deals -- when patented drug makers pay generics makers to hang fire - and subsequent raids on several drug makers. However, the Commission scrapped such investigations into AstraZeneca and Swiss peer Nycomed in March this year after failing to find evidence that the companies had undertaken such deals. It also dropped a similar probe into GlaxoSmithKline after a U.S. rival Synthon withdrew its complaint".

 The Advocate General's 151-paragraph Opinion in Case C‑457/10 P AstraZeneca AB and AstraZeneca plc v European Commission can be read in full here,

The IPKat can't help admire the zeal and zest with which AstraZeneca has fought its corner, first on the question of liability and then on the quantum of the fine.