BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators charged French drugmaker Servier, Israel's Teva and four other firms on Monday with blocking the entry of generic perindopril medicine to market, its second major case against a key element of business in the pharmaceutical industry.

"At this stage, the (European) Commission takes the view that the patent settlement agreements concluded by Servier with Niche/Unichem, Matrix (today Mylan Laboratories Limited), Teva, Krka and Lupin, as well as Servier's acquisition of key competing technologies were aimed at delaying or preventing the market entry of cheap generic versions of perindopril, in violation of EU antitrust rules," the EU watchdog said in a statement.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Rex Merrifield)