India Dismisses Antitrust Complaint Against Gilead Sciences

The Indian fair trade regulator has dismissed a complaint against biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences that alleged the company engaged in anti-competitive activities in the licensing of its anti-HIV drugs, according to the SpicyIP blog.

In the case, an order [pdf] issued by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) dated 5 March 2013 found “no prima facie case” against Gilead.

The public health advocates that filed the complaint raised objections against three licensing agreements —  including with the Medicines Patent Pool — which can be read in paragraph 10 of the order, according to SpicyIP. The blog said: “The gist of the challenge was that the licensing agreements would allegedly restrict the supply of AIDs drugs which would make the drugs expensive in India. According to the activists, such agreements were thus in violation of Section 3(1) of the Competition Act which prohibits any persons from entering into production agreements which cause an ‘appreciable adverse’ effect on competition in India. It was also alleged that Section 3(4) would be violated. This provision forbids certain agreements in the ‘productions chains in different markets’ if such agreement causes a likely ‘appreciable adverse’ effect on competition in India.”

The CCI rejected arguments made by public health advocates on the grounds that the Indian market had diverse competition among generic pharmaceutical companies.

For background on the case, see (IPW, Public Health, 28 June 2012).