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NHS suppliers investigated over 1000% price hikes

pharmafile | October 26, 2016 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing NHS, price hikes 

The Competition and Marketing Authority has launched an investigation into a number of drug companies following claims that 32 drugs have risen in price by 1,000% in five years.

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt called in the CMA when an investigation by The Times revealed that drugmakers could be exploiting a loophole in NHS legislation to hike the prices of their products, facing limited competition on long-established, off-patent drugs, bought from large pharmaceutical firms.

The CMA said: “The investigation relates to suspected unfair pricing by way of charging excessive prices in the supply of certain pharmaceutical products, including to the National Health Service.”

If found guilty, companies could be fined up to 10% of their turnover.

Concordia International said it was one of the companies being investigated. A spokesman said: “We are working co-operatively to better understand the CMA’s position and we will continue to work constructively to resolve the matter.

“Although Concordia has also had past discussions with the CMA regarding the supply of certain of its products in the UK, this is the first interaction with the CMA regarding the company’s pricing.”

Incidentally, Concordia have made the news recently as it was revealed its CEO has resigned, allegedly in connection with the company’s history of aggressively hiking the prices of a number of its products.

Matt Fellows

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