PHARMACEUTICAL companies Flynn and Pfizer have been fined nearly £70 million after they overcharged the NHS for a life-saving epilepsy drug, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced today.
The body said that the two drug companies had illegally “abused their dominant positions” in the market to charge unfairly high prices over four years.
Costs to the NHS for the phenytoin sodium drug increased from £2m in 2012 to £50m in 2013.
The CMA said it has fined Flynn £6.7m and Pfizer £63m.
CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said: “Phenytoin is an essential drug relied on daily by thousands of people throughout the UK to prevent life-threatening epileptic seizures.
“These firms illegally exploited their dominant positions to charge the NHS excessive prices and make more money for themselves — meaning patients and taxpayers lost out.
“Such behaviour will not be tolerated, and the companies must now face the consequences of their illegal action.”
The CMA previously handed out an infringement decision on the pricing in 2016, finding the two companies broke competition law and passed them fines worth more than £84m.
The latest fine replaces the original decision following a challenge of the earlier findings by Pfizer and Flynn with the competition appeal tribunal.
Campaign group Just Treatment’s senior pharma organiser Elizabeth Baines said: “This latest scandal is yet more proof that given the chance, big pharmaceutical companies won’t think twice about putting their own profits ahead of patients and the NHS.
“Pfizer and Flynn used their dominant position in the market to rip off our health service, purely to serve their own financial interests — to the detriment of the patients whose needs they claim to serve.
“We urgently need a transformation of the pharmaceutical industry so that it’s run in the interest of public health, not corporate profit.”
A Pfizer spokeswoman said: “Pfizer disagrees with the CMA’s latest infringement decision and will be appealing against it.
“As we have consistently stated throughout this process, ensuring a sustainable supply of our products to UK patients is of paramount importance to us and was at the heart of our decision to divest phenytoin capsules to Flynn Pharma in 2012.”
Flynn was also approached for comment.
