The European Commission has opened a formal investigation into pharma company Sanofi-Aventis, over allegations the company obstructed its investigators.

According to the Commission, the company refused to let its investigators examine and copy certain Aventis documents at one of its French sites without a search warrant. Under EU law, it says, such a warrant is not required.

“An initiation of proceedings does not imply that the Commission has proof of an infringement [of the law],” says a press release.

The investigation itself was announced in January and centres on “whether agreements between pharmaceutical companies, such as settlements in patent disputes, may infringe the EC Treaty’s prohibition on restrictive business practices”. In addition it is looking at whether misuse of patent rights and vexatious litigation is creating “artificial barriers to entry”, ie stopping other companies getting involved in the market (press release 2).

Pharma Times notes:

Commissioner Kroes’ investigators have now questioned around 100 companies. Then, in mid-May it was announced that the probe was being broadened to include approximately 80 other bodies, including associations of doctors, pharmacists and patients, and the drug price regulators of the EU member states, thus making this potentially the widest antitrust investigation ever conducted by the EU.

The Times thinks Sanofi-Aventis could be fined 1% of its 2007 sales, some £221 million, if found guilty. AFP has a different take, saying:

Sanofi can look at a precedent in January when the European Commission slapped a 38-million-euro (56-million-dollar) fine on German energy group EON for breaking a seal on a room that contained confiscated papers.