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The European Union on Friday accused drug companies of adding billions of dollars for health care costs by delaying or blocking the sale of generic drugs less expensive.
In a common tactic, said Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner, has been for companies to collect drug patents to protect the active ingredients in drugs - in one case, the 1300 patent for a single medicine. Another tactic, she said, was for pharmaceutical companies to sue the makers of generic drugs for patent infringement eyes of the world, which tended to delay the availability of lower cost products for years.
Ms Kroes made the comments Friday while presenting the preliminary findings of a broad investigation into allegations of anti-practices in the drug. She turned her also sights on generics company, which said it received 200 million from $ pharmaceutical companies for a period of seven years in exchange for farm products on their market.
Patients and health systems in Europe, would have saved at least 3 billion, or $ 3.8 billion, from 2000 to 2007 - shaved or 5 percent of medical bills - if the companies had to generics to market sooner, she said.

It did not identify the companies, and they said no legal action was imminent. But she said that European officials “will not hesitate to open antitrust cases against companies where there are indications that the antitrust may have been violated.”

The report is likely to lead to enforcement action to test whether individual companies’ strategies violate competition law, “said Stephen Rose, competition partner at law firm Eversheds.

The pharmaceutical industry is faced with the loss of patents on many of its products Blockbuster in the coming years, and new challenges in the United States, where President-elect Barack Obama could give the government’s Medicare program power to negotiate directly with companies Pharmaceutical - A change that the Bush administration has resisted - although the impact on prices will depend on the authority Congress grants.

Ms. Kroes investigation began in January with a series of raids on major drug companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis, on suspicion that they and other companies have been slow availability of generics and new drugs. The European Commission aims to speed generics to market and to increase the number of new drugs available.

On Friday, European officials documents published Retrieved from these raids. They did not identify the authors, but the documents appear to come from brand-name pharmaceutical companies.

“I suppose that I had all the conversations around” how we can block generic manufacturers, “one document said. “Do not play games in patenting new forms of salt too late, generics manufacturers are starting earlier and earlier,” the document said, apparently referring to the pharmaceutical ingredients.

Another document said, “We identify options to obtain or acquire patents for the sole purpose of limiting freedom of operation of our competitors.”

Major drug makers criticized officials for publishing statements.

Officials “selective quotations used to seek to mischaracterize the industry as anti-”, said the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, an industry trade group.

“Those quotes just shows how good reason, innovators have sought to protect their inventions and to illustrate the highly competitive nature of innovation in this sector, which is entirely to the benefit of society,” the statement from the trade group said. “These are not evidence of a breach of competition law recognizes that the report itself - expressly provided to reach any such conclusion.”

Generics makers in Europe, said he welcomed the report, saying it reflected boundries of the patients compared to purchase less expensive drugs. They aim to ease the process of generics entering the market when expire patents, and to raise obstacles for pharmaceutical companies to sue them for suspected patent infringements.

European yet also, investigators have turned their focus to generic companies, finding they have accepted payments from brand-name drug makers as part of litigation in patent, may, in exchange for delaying generic medicines.

In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission said these so-called reverse payments violate antitrust law by dividing up the market.

On Friday, generics makers maintained that the practice was less prevalent in Europe. Ms. Kroes has identified such payments amounting to 200 million euros, representing more than 10 percent of the settlement of litigation in patent generics involving companies from 2000 to 2007.

Generics makers said that the value of settlements in Europe covered by Mrs. Kroes has been a relatively small amount compared with the size of settlements in the United States.

They said problems could be fixed by changing the laws and rules governing the way in which drugs are marketed.

Over all, the pharmaceutical market in Europe is worth 214 billion euros a year ($ 276 billion), or 430 euros (555 dollars) for each European resident, according to the European Commission, executive arm of the European Union