Brussels, 17/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 17 January, the European Commission asked “a number” of pharmaceutical laboratories to send it copies of the amicable agreements on patents which they concluded in 2010 with producers of generic drugs in the European Economic Area. This is a new series of requests of this kind, following those sent previously regarding agreements of the same kind concluded in previous years. In this way, the Commission wishes to determine the number of agreements of this kind which are still delaying the introduction onto the market of cheaper generic drugs than the originals, keeping drug prices artificially high, to the detriment of competition and consumers. Following the Commission's report of July 2009 on competition in the sector (EUROPE 9938), which shed light on these delays, an initial series of examinations carried out in the EEA in 2010 showed positive developments: the percentage of this kind of potentially “problematic” amicable agreements fell by 10% in this area between July 2008 and December 2009, having stood at 22% for the period covered by the investigation (January 2000-June 2008), which gave rise to the 2009 report. The sums concerned by these problematic agreements between so-called “originator” pharmaceutical companies and producers of generic medicines also fell, from 200 million euro for the period covered by the investigation to under 1 million euro, according to the 2010 report. (F.G./trans.fl)