Unichem down over 6%

Unichem Laboratories is in the red today, down over 6% at Rs.204, closer to its intra day low at Rs.203.

The stock is down after the company stated that the European Commission has decided to impose a wholly unjustified fine on Niche/Unichem (jointly and severally) contending that it had acted in breach of EU Antitrust Rules. The European Commission reached this conclusion because its subsidiary, Niche Generics (Niche), agreed to settle financially crippling patent litigation with Laboratories Servier (Servier) at the beginning of 2005.

The company has stated that it denies any wrongdoing on the part of either itself or Niche and was not involved in the agreement to settle the litigation with Servier back in 2005 as it only took full ownership of Niche late in 2006. Thus Unichem has said that it cannot see how it can be held accountable for what was in any event a pro-competitive act on the part of its than only part-owned subsidiary Niche.