UK: Court overturns CMA’s excessive pricing drug fine

Pfizer Inc and Flynn Pharma won an appeal on Thursday, June 7, against fines totalling nearly £90 million (US$120 million) imposed in 2016 for ramping up the cost of an epilepsy drug.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had fined the companies for overcharging for phenytoin sodium capsules, following a dramatic price hike in 2012.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal said on Thursday there was much in the CMA’s decision with which it agreed, but it found that conclusions on abuse of market dominance were in error.

The CMA said it might appeal the tribunal’s ruling. It had taken action against the drugmakers after the UK price charged for 100 mg packs of the epilepsy drug jumped 2,600 percent from £2.83 to £67.50 (US$3.80 to US$90.63) in 2012, before being reduced to £54 (US$72.50) in May 2014.

As a result, annual spending on the capsules by Britain’s National Health Service rose from £2 million in 2012 to about £50 million (US$2.69 million to US$67.13 million) in 2013. The CMA said at the time that UK prices were many times higher than elsewhere in Europe.

Full Content: CNBC

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