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China: Anti-monopoly regulator fines local drug producers for price-fixing

By  |  February 7, 2016

National Development and Reform Commission, China’s anti-monopoly regulator, recently fined five local drug firms a total of nearly 4 million yuan for fixing the price of allopurinol, a treatment for gout and kidney disease, Reuters reported.

According to the NDRC, the drug firms colluded to increase the price of the allopurinol tablets from April 2014 to Sept. 2015.

“[The firms] created monopolies by agreeing to raise sales prices and artificially carve up the market,” the NDRC said in its official statement.

Allopurinol is on China’s essential drug list.

The NDRC emphasized that the involved firms have held several meetings where their officials negotiated to have a fixed price for the said tablet, hence violating the anti-monopoly law.

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