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Update:
- The Competition Appeal Tribunal upheld £130 million of a fine given to Allergan over claims the pharmaceutical company colluded with other drugmakers to overcharge the National Health Service for hydrocortisone tablets.
- The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Allergan had originally fined Allergan £152 million, finding the drug company and its co-conspirators overcharged the National Health Service by hundreds of millions of pounds.
- The tribunal, in choosing to decrease the fine amount, ruled Allergan could not be held responsible for Actavis UK’s actions during its time owning the company.
- The CMA originally imposed the fine in July 2021. Allergan first appealed the fine in July 2021.
- The CMA imposed a total of £266.5 million in fines against drugmakers involved in the hydrocortisone tablet overcharging scheme.
(July 19,2021)
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that it will hit 10 drug companies with a £260 million fine for charging the National Health Service (NHS) excessively high prices for hydrocortisone tablets – a drug used to treat adrenal insufficiencies.
The agency accuses several drug companies, including Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK (now known as Accord-UK), of stifling competition for the tablets and then charging the NHS up to 10,000 percent more for the drug. The CMA says that Auden Mckenzie paid rival pharmaceutical firms to stop them from producing hydrocortisone.
Accord-UK and Allergan face an additional £66 million fine for also paying off competitors to keep them out of the market for hydrocortisone tablets, announced the CMA.
“Tens of thousands of people in the UK depend on hydrocortisone tablets to treat adrenal insufficiency, which includes life-threatening conditions such as Addison’s disease,” says the agency’s announcement.
The antitrust activity led to steep increases in the price of hydrocortisone tablets paid by UK health agencies, from 70p in April 2008 to £88.00 by March 2016 for 10mg doses. The price of higher doses rose as well, says the CMA, from £1.07 to £102.74 for each pack of 20 mg hydrocortisone tablets between 2008 and 2016.
“These are without doubt some of the most serious abuses we have uncovered in recent years”, said Andrea Coscelli, Chief Executive at the CMA, in a statement. “The actions of these firms cost the NHS – and therefore taxpayers – hundreds of millions of pounds.”
Coscelli went on to say that at one point, the NHS was being charged over £80 for a single pack of tablets that had previously cost less than £1.
“These were egregious breaches of the law that artificially inflated the costs faced by the NHS, reducing the money available for patient care. Our fine serves as a warning to any other drug firm planning to exploit the NHS.”
Drug companies Actavis UK, Auden Mckenzie, Allergan, Accord Healthcare, Intas, Waymade PLC, Amdipharm, Advanz Pharma and some entities of private-equity group Cinven all face allegations of stifling the market for hydrocortisone tablets and vary amounts of fines.
Waymade, Accord, and Advanz told Reuters in an email that they plan to appeal the agency’s decision and fine.
Do you or a loved one rely on hydrocortisone tablets? What do you think of the alleged antitrust activity and fines? Tell us in the comment section below!
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