French authorities raid drug company offices to investigate collusion over eye drug

Competition authorities in France have raided the offices of Roche and Novartis and confiscated material in connection with an investigation into alleged collusion over treatment for age related macular degeneration (AMD).

The raids are the latest stage in an investigation begun in 2012 at the prompting of the health minister, Marisol Touraine. Novartis markets ranibizumab (Lucentis) in Europe for the treatment of wet AMD, while Roche sells the related cancer drug, bevacizumab (Avastin). The complaint being investigated is that the two companies colluded to prevent the use of the much cheaper Avastin to treat the eye condition. …