Apparently it's an antitrust kind of day: The European Commission announced it's investigating Sanofi-Aventis for obstructing its big probe of anticompetitive tactics in the drug industry. Europe's antitrust watchdog was raiding Sanofi's HQ in France when company officials refused to release documents without a search warrant from the French government. European law, however, requires companies to comply with E.C. inspectors.
You'll recall that in January, the E.C.'s antitrust cops raided a number of drugmakers in January, looking for evidence that their behavior in patenting new drugs and suing generics makers may have dampened competition.
- see the E.C.'s release
- get the Dow Jones story for more