Two UK drug companies fined £260m over price inflation
Two British pharmaceutical companies have been fined £260 million (€304 million) for supposedly using their position as the sole providers of the anti-inflammatory drug hydrocortisone to inflate prices when selling to the NHS for over a decade.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that Auden McKenzie and Accord UK charged "excessively" high prices for the drug, reportedly costing the taxpayer millions of pounds and gatekeeping access to those who need it most.
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Tens of thousands of UK residents rely on hydrocortisone to deal with inflammation and irritation.
The watchdog claims the two bodies artificially raised the price of a single pack of tablets from 70p in 2007 to £88 in 2016 - a rise of more than 10,000%.
This means the NHS was spending over £80 million (€93.8 million) on hydrocortisone alone manually, compared with the £500,000 before the price hike commenced in April 2008.
Furthermore, details have arisen over the two companies stifling competition by paying off any would-be competitors so they could remain the sole force on the market, effectively enforcing their monopoly.
CMA chief Andrea Coscelli said: “These are without doubt some of the most serious abuses we have uncovered in recent years. The actions of these firms cost the NHS – and therefore taxpayers – hundreds of millions of pounds.
“These were egregious breaches of the law that artificially inflated the costs facing the NHS, reducing the money available for patient care."
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Accord UK revealed in a statement it would be seeking to appeal the fine. A spokesperson said much of the price hiking happened before the merger of Actavis - as it was known back then - to form Accord UK in 2017.
The firm claims the modern form of the company has worked to continue reducing the price of hydrocortisone since then.
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