(Adds GSK reaction)
BRUSSELS, Jan 30 (Reuters) - The European Union's top court
set criteria on Thursday to resolve a dispute in Britain over
deals GlaxoSmithKline struck with rival drugmakers to
delay the launch of generic drugs.
The court said these deals in themselves do not constitute a
breach of competition rules but their impact needed to be
assessed because they could harm competition.
The case was brought before the court by GSK after Britain's
competition watchdog fined the drugmaker 37.6 million pounds
($49 million) in 2016 for its so-called "pay-for-delay" deals
that postponed the launch of cheaper copies of an
anti-depressant.
"It is necessary to determine how the market will probably
operate and be structured in the absence of the concerted
practice," the court said in its assessment of the potential
harm to competition caused by such deals.
The British Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had said
that between 2001 and 2004 GSK paid generic drug companies over
50 million pounds with the intention of delaying the release of
cheap generic versions of its former blockbuster Seroxat after
its patent expired in 1999.
The EU court said on Thursday that the ability of each
generic manufacturer to access the market had to be assessed in
deciding whether the deals were unlawful.
If generic drugmakers were not in a position to sell their
cheaper copy of Seroxat there would have been no harm to
competition, the court concluded, effectively leaving a British
appeal tribunal to settle the dispute.
"We do not yet have the final ruling in this case, which
relates to agreements from nearly 20 years ago, and so will not
be commenting further while proceedings are ongoing," a
spokesman for GSK said in a statement.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio;
Additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London;
Editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Andrew Cawthorne)
Glaxosmithkline (GSK)