Brussels, 04/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has closed a probe into IMS Health Inc for alleged malpractice in five European Union countries. The company is a world leader in data collection on pharmaceutical sales and prescriptions. The Commission has observed that IMS had stopped the alleged practices either voluntarily or upon intervention by the competition authority of one of the countries concerned. The investigation began in October 2000 when the Commission sent a Statement of Objections to Intercontinental Marketing Services (IMS) Health Inc claiming abuses of a dominant position on a number of pharmaceutical market research data markets in five Member States (Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands) (see EUROPE 25 October 2000). IMS practices consisted of various discounting practices, and in making the sale of some services subject to the prior purchase of others, which distorted competition and created a significant trade barrier to products coming on the market. At the end of the investigation, the Commission noticed that IMS had put an end to its anti-competitive behaviour either spontaneously or following the intervention of the competition authorities in the countries concerned. The Commission strengthened its probe by examining other aspects of IMS behaviour on the market but decided that they were not illegal. The Commission has pointed out that the proceedings it has just completed are separate from the so-called "1860 brick system", which involved the refusal by IMS to grant a licence allowing the use of its calculation method in data collection on regional sales which allow pharmaceutical companies to identify sales trends in their market areas (see EUROPE 7 July 2001 p 12).