Slovenian pharmaceutical giant Krka on Wednesday denied violating European Union (EU) antitrust rules as the European Commission imposed fines on it and five other pharma companies for anti-trust legislation breach.

Of all 427.7 million euros (581.8 million U.S. dollars) penalty, Krka needs to pay 10 million euros (13.6 million U.S. dollars), while French company Servier has to share 331 million euros. The left will be paid by other four pharma companies.

Krka insisted in a statement that it had not distorted or delayed the entry of perindopril on EU markets, and had not violated anti-trust legislation.

Currently, Krka agreed to pay the fine within the 3-month deadline, but it plans to lodge an appeal at the General Court of the EU in Luxembourg.

Krka, a leading exporter in Slovenia, generated sales worth 1.06 billion euros (1.44 billion U.S. dollars) on foreign markets in 2013.

In addition to Krka and Servier, the other four producers of generic medicines are Niche/Unichem, Matrix (now part of Mylan), Teva and Lupin.

The European Commission imposed the fines on them "for concluding a series of deals all aimed at protecting Servier's bestselling blood pressure medicine, perindopril, from price competition by generics in the EU." Endi

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