Pharmaceutical giant Novartis said on Oct. 7 that offices of its subsidiary Sandoz were raided by European Commission investigators probing suspected competition violations.
"The French offices of Sandoz were raided" on Oct. 6, a Novartis spokesman said, without giving further details.
He added that European authorities had not sought further information from the group and that the firm would cooperate with the European Commission.
Investigators raided at least two other European pharmaceutical giants -- Sanofi-Aventis and a French subsidiary of Germany's Ratiopharm -- on Oct. 6 over suspected competition violations.
The Commission did not detail the companies or countries involved and stressed that such steps followed no fixed deadlines.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
