EU court adviser backs EU antitrust fine on Lundbeck

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – An adviser to Europe’s top court on Thursday said the court should uphold an EU antitrust fine imposed on Danish drugmaker Lundbeck for its deals with rivals to delay sales of generic copies of its anti-depressant citalopram.

The European Commission had fined Lundbeck and five other generic drugmakers in 2013 a combined 146 million euros for their “pay-for-delay” deals because they breached EU rules.

Lundbeck’s fine was 93.7 million euros ($104.95 million). The company subsequently challenged the EU antitrust decision at the General Court but lost in 2016, prompting it to appeal to the EU Court of Justice, Europe’s highest.

The case is C-591/16 P Lundbeck v Commission.

($1 = 0.8928 euros)

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)