Shares of pharmaceutical firm Lupin on Thursday fell by nearly 5 per cent in early trade on the Bombay Stock Exchange, a day after the European Commission said it has initiated an anti-trust probe in the company for restrictive business practices.
Shares of Lupin today dipped to a low of Rs 768.55, down 4.91 per cent over the previous close on the BSE The European Commission (EC), which is the executive arm of the European Union, had said it would probe as many as six companies including Indian entities, Lupin and Matrix Laboratories, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unichem Lab.
The EC would be probing the role of these firms in possibly hindering the entry of a generic version of perindopril, a blood pressure medicine, which delayed the introduction of cheaper generics drug.
Also shares of Matrix Laboratories fell by 0.77 per cent to a low of Rs 207 and Unichem Lab dipped 1.68 per cent to witness a low of Rs 199.95 on the BSE.
The decision concerns generic companies including Krka d.D., Lupin, Matrix Laboratories (a subsidiary of Mylan Inc), Niche Generics and Teva UK / Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, as regards number of individual, possibly restrictive, agreements between each of them and France-based Les Laboratories Servier, the European Commission said in a statement.