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Hungary: Dawn raids hit local offices of France’s Sanofi

By  |  July 30, 2014

Hungarian competition authorities have reportedly raided the local offices of French pharmaceutical conglomerate Sanofi in part of an investigation into suspicions that the company abused its market dominance.

Reports say the competition regulator GVH searched the offices on July 22; Sanofi confirmed the searches and said the company is fully cooperating with the investigation.

The GVH’s raids mark the launch of an investigation into concerns that the company abused its market power in regards to its wholesale trade contracts. Authorities said Sanofi refused to sign a contract with a Hungarian wholesale drug company. In a statement, GVH said that Sanofi’s practices to choose wholesale partners “is not based on the expected real economic efficiency of the link, while putting certain groups of market players into unjustified disadvantageous position relative to incumbent market players.”

Full content: Reuters

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