European Union antitrust regulators have raided drug makers in several countries seeking evidence they struck anticompetitive deals or used their dominant market positions to squeeze rivals. No companies were named and the raids were described as a preliminary step in an antitrust investigation (see the statement).

Two months ago, the European Commission raided several drugmakers, including Sanofi-Aventis and Novartis, on suspicion they violated antitrust rules by deliberately stalling cheaper generic versions of their own meds after patents had expired. Last July, you may recall, European Union competition commissioner Neelie Kroes issued a report saying that delays in bringing generic drugs to the market had cost consumers and healthcare providers billions.

Until now, the EU has only gone public about one other investigation involving France’s Les Laboratoires Servier for hindering the launch of generic versions of its heart disease drug perindopril, BusinessWeek reminds us. EU regulators said they suspected that Servier did deals with generic rivals Krka, Lupin, Matrix, Niche Generics and Teva to thwart cheaper versions.

The EU, by the way, has said its knows of at least 200 settlement agreements - which are sometimes called pay-to-delay deals - between generic and brand-name drug makers that could restrict the launch of generics.