EU antitrust regulators say that European patients had to pay some 3 billion euro (about 3.87 billion dollars) more for medicines in between 2000 and 2007 because pharmaceutical companies deliberately stalled the sale of cheaper generic versions.

An investigation of major pharmaceutical companies showed they had blocked or delayed generic drugs from entering the market to prevent losing revenue on their more profitable drugs. The drug companies used expensive legal action to prevent generic drug companies from making their own versions of medicines once patents had expired.

The drug companies launched disputes, lawsuits and multiple patent applications for the same drug. In one case, 1,300 applications were filed.