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France fines Johnson & Johnson 25m euros for blocking generic drug

US pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson was found by the French competition agency of deliberately hindering generic production of its painkiller Durogesic.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

France's competition authority fined US healthcare group Johnson & Johnson 25 million euros ($29.62 million) on Wednesday after it found the company had deliberately slowed market access to generic copies of its painkiller Durogesic, reports CNBC.

Durogesic is sold as a skin patch to control ongoing moderate to severe pain and is often prescribed in cancer cases. It contains fentanyl, an opioid which, if misused, can lead to death by overdose.

The French Autorité de la Concurrence said J&J's Janssen had "repeatedly intervened" to block the approval processes in France of Durogesic's generic copies and disparaged them when in contact with doctors and other healthcare professionals.

Read more of this Reuters report published by CNBC.