Pharmaceutical company Auden Mckenzie paid rival Waymade to delay its hydrocortisone drug in a bid to keep prices artificially high, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has claimed. Auden increased the price of 20mg tablets from £1.07 ($1.41) per pack to £45.85. When Waymade's rival drug was due to launch in 2011, it instead agreed to freeze its stock in return for payments from Auden, which increased its price to £89.60 for the four years that Waymade stayed out of the market. The CMA said that while there were no direct evidence of collusion, it had found "sufficient evidence" to suggest that Auden's actions amounted to an unfair trade practice.
Pharmaceutical company Auden Mckenzie paid rival Waymade to delay its hydrocortisone drug in a bid to keep prices artificially high, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has claimed. Auden increased the price of 20mg tablets from £1.07 ($1.41) per pack to £45.85. When Waymade's rival drug was due to launch in 2011, it instead agreed to freeze its stock in return for payments from Auden, which increased its price to £89.60 for the four years that Waymade stayed out of the market. The CMA estimated the drug companies' move cost the NHS £2m a year between 2011 and 2015.