Memo: Antitrust: Commission welcomes Court judgment in AstraZeneca case

The European Commission welcomed on 1 July 2010 the judgment of the General Court (Case T-321/05) which largely dismisses the appeal by the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca AB of Sweden and AstraZeneca Plc of the UK. The General Court's ruling concerns the Commission decision of June 2005 that imposed a fine of €60 million on AstraZeneca for misusing the patent system and the procedures for marketing pharmaceutical products to prevent or delay the market entry of competing generic medicinal products (see IP/05/737).