Sanofi-Aventis, the Paris-based pharmaceutical group, Israel’s Teva, the world’s largest generic drugs producer, and Novartis of Switzerland have all been raided by European competition officials in a fresh probe into suspected antitrust breaches believed to have occurred in France.

The European Commission said “surprise inspections” began at a number of pharmaceutical companies because of concerns about “possible anti-competitive business practices and/or abuse of a dominant position”.