Billy Kenber, Investigations Reporter A watchdog has accused two pharmaceutical companies of colluding to keep prices of a life-saving medicine artificially high. The Competition and Markets Authority said it had provisionally found that Auden Mckenzie had agreed to pay a rival company, Waymade, to delay a competing version of hydrocortisone tablets from reaching the market and potentially driving down the price. Auden had been the sole supplier of the drug for several years, and raised the price of a packet of 20mg tablets from £1.07 to £45.85 when, in May 2011, Waymade was allegedly about to launch its own version. The regulator said Waymade instead froze its own stock and struck a deal in which Auden made monthly payments “aimed at delaying [Waymade’s] entrance in the market”. It stayed… Want to read more? Subscribe now and get unlimited digital access on web and our smartphone and tablet apps, free for your first month.
Pharmaceutical company Auden 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.