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Law360, London (April 8, 2020, 5:59 PM BST ) Britain's antitrust watchdog said it has suspended two investigations into pharmaceutical companies that it suspects of illegally colluding on the price of drugs, saying the cases are still open but resources have been reallocated to "urgent work" during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Competitions and Markets Authority said Tuesday it has put two separate probes into the pharmaceutical industry on hold. One is investigating a pair of British drugmakers and a wholesaler that allegedly breach competition laws with a deal to carve up the market for an antibiotic that treats urinary tract infections. The other accused four companies of illegally colluding to restrict the U.K.'s supply of an anti-nausea tablet to drive up the price of drugs used by the National Health Service.
The U.K. authority said in statements on each case, "This case remains open but has been paused in order to reallocate resources to ensure that the CMA is able to focus on urgent work during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic."
One of the halted cases involves a probe into an agreement between rivals Amco Pharmaceuticals — which is now Advanz Pharma Corp. — and Morningside Pharmaceuticals not to compete with each another by selling the exact same amount of antibiotic nitrofurantoin capsules to wholesaler Alliance Healthcare.
The two also committed to sell the drug exclusively to Alliance Healthcare, the CMA has said. The pharmaceutical companies denied the allegations in July.
In the second case, the CMA has accused Alliance Pharma PLC, Focus Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Lexon UK Ltd. and Medreich Ltd. of agreeing that, between 2013 and 2018, only one of them would sell 3 milligram Prochlorperazine tablets to the U.K.'s health service, hiking demand and hugely inflating the price.
The CMA said all four companies entered into "overarching agreements" that broke the law. But Alliance said in May 2019 that it did not profit from the alleged scheme.
The CMA said in March that it is not looking to penalize companies that are coordinating to help Britain respond to the outbreak, such as supermarkets. But the watchdog also warned this would not extend to collusion that was not essential.
--Additional reporting by Anne Cullen and Joanne Faulkner. Editing by Marygrace Murphy.
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