The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) are investigating price-hikes of vital hydrocortisone tablets on the basis that they suspect they are being excessively inflated.
Intas Pharmaceuticals Limited and Accord Healthcare Limited, which acquired Actavis UK in January 2017, are at the centre of the CMA’s investigations. The suspicion is breaches of competition laws through unfair prices over the supply of hydrocortisone tablets in the UK to the NHS.
The CMA say they have already provisionally found Actavis UK in breach of competition law for allegedly charging excessive prices for hydrocortisone tablets to the NHS. The price of 10mg tablets reportedly increased by a massive 12,000%; a rise from 70p per pack to £88.00 per pack as of March 2016.
Further, the prices for 20mg tablets were also increased by 9,500%; rising from £1.07 to £102.74 per pack.
Before April 2008, the NHS reportedly spent £522,000.00 per year on hydrocortisone tablets, yet seven years later they were paying around £70 million per year; an unsustainable price hike.
In a statement, an officer of the CMA said:
“This is a lifesaving drug relied on by thousands of patients, which the NHS has no choice but to continue purchasing. We allege that the company has taken advantage of this situation and the removal of the drug from price regulation, leaving the NHS – and ultimately the taxpayer – footing the bill for the substantial price rises.
The CMA’s findings are provisional and no conclusion should be drawn at this stage that there has in fact been any breach of competition law. The CMA will carefully consider any representations of the parties under investigation before determining whether the law has been infringed.”
The investigations remain ongoing, but one thing is for sure – if a company has been found to have hiked-up the price of vital medication which then costs our public-funded NHS far more when they’re already stretched, the company responsible should feel the full weight of the law.