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 2015 that Waymade stayed out of the market. The CMA estimated the drug companies' move cost the NHS £2m a year between 2011 and the four years.
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.