On 15 January 2008 the European Commission launched an inquiry into competition in the pharmaceuticals sector led by Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.

The report finds that big pharma uses a number of strategies to block or delay the entry of generic medicines such as ‘patent thickets’ which are clusters of hundreds of patents related to a single drug or ’settlement deals’ where generics companies are paid off to delay their entry to the market. More than 200 million euros was paid to generic companies in such deals to limit the entry of generics.

The comission estimates that delays in getting generics on the market as a result of these tactics had cost healthcare providers about 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion).