Collusion by three pharmaceutical firms has resulted in eye-watering price rises for a life-saving drug purchased by the National Health Service, according to provisional findings by the competition watchdog.
In 2016, pharmaceutical giant Aspen made a deal with two other firms to keep them out of the UK market for fludrocortisone, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Thursday. Thousands of patients rely on the medicine to treat what is known as Addison’s disease – an insufficient production of certain hormones.
“This alleged illegal agreement protected Aspen’s UK monopoly in relation to the supply of the drug to the NHS and gave the firm the opportunity to increase prices by up to 1,800 per cent,” the CMA said.
The arrangement between Aspen, headquartered in South Africa, Britain’s Amilco and the Netherlands’ Tiofarma lasted from March 2016 until October 2016.
Aspen has already admitted that it took part in this agreement, but the other two firms have not. Amilco and Tiofarma now have the opportunity to respond to the CMA’s provisional findings.
1/50 2 October 2019
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Ex-Thomas Cook employees demonstrate in London on October 2, 2019, after delivering a petition calling for a full inquiry into Thomas Cook’s collapse and for the company’s directors to pay back their bonuses. – British travel firm Thomas Cook collapsed on September 23, leaving hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers stranded and sparking the UK’s biggest repatriation since World War II.
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5/50 28 September 2019
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34/50 30 August 2019
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35/50 29 August 2019
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41/50 23 August 2019
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45/50 19 August 2019
A fire that broke out at the site of Village Bakery on Coed Aben Road, Wrexham Industrial Estate in Wales
Jord_wxm29/Twitter/PA
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47/50 17 August 2019
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50/50 14 August 2019
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AFP/Getty
The watchdog also said Aspen will pay the NHS £8m to resolve another competition issue related to the supply of fludrocortisone.
Michael Grenfell, executive director for enforcement at the CMA, said: “This highlights the importance of competition in making sure the NHS, and so ultimately UK taxpayers, do not pay more than they should for medicines.”
In addition, Aspen has committed to ensure that in the future there will be at least two suppliers of fludrocortisone in the UK to lower the prices available to the NHS.
This is not the first time the company has had a brush with the law. Three years ago, Italy imposed a €5.2m (£4.6m) fine on Aspen for abusing its dominant position to set unfair prices for four cancer medicines.
And in 2017, the European Commission opened an EU-wide investigation into Aspen over the same concerns.
