Commission carried out unannounced inspections at Sanofi last September
The European Commission announced on Friday it has opened an antitrust investigation into French pharmaceutical group Sanofi over suspicions it violated EU competition rules through the promotion of one of its flu vaccines.
The probe will examine whether Sanofi ran a communication campaign aimed primarily at healthcare professionals in Germany and France to persuade them that its vaccine, Efluelda, was superior to rival Fluad, produced by CSL Seqirus.
In both markets, the Commission considers Sanofi to hold a dominant position. It said it is “preliminarily concerned” about campaign claims suggesting the evidence supporting Fluad is weaker than that for Efluelda, a position that contradicts assessments by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and national immunisation advisory groups in Germany and France.
As reported by Euractiv, the Commission carried out unannounced inspections of Sanofi’s premises last September.
