Excessive Pricing: Aspen lose their appeal in Italy – and are in the Commission’s crosshairs

07.08.2017

Last year we reported the Italian’s take on excessive pricing (here), where South African pharmaceutical Aspen was in the firing line for increasing the price of four cancer drugs by a hefty 300% – 1500%. The Italian Market Competition Authority (AGCM) found that this amounted to an abuse of dominance by artificially inflating the price of the drugs, which had long been off patent. The company was fined €5.2 million in October 2016.

On 14 June 2017 Aspen lost all grounds of its appeal against the AGCM decision.

This loss for Aspen was set against a troubling back drop for the company: not only had the South African Competition Commission announced an investigation into Aspen, Pfizer and Roche for suspected collusion over cancer drug prices just days earlier, but on 15 May 2017 the European Commission opened a formal investigation into Aspen in relation to excessive pricing of five cancer drugs.

The Commission’s press release states that – in addition to investigating the apparently ‘significant and unjustified’ price hikes applied to Aspen’s products – the Commission is also looking at the way in which Aspen threatened to withdraw the drugs in issue from Member States. This was also an influential fact in the AGCM decision and subsequent appeal ruling by the Italian Appeal Court.

The separate statement recording the opening of proceedings suggests that the Commission’s focus is wider than simply the negotiation of prices with national health authorities. It notes that Aspen’s negotiation practices “have included reducing the direct medicine supply and/or threatening supply reductions, as well as defining EAA-wide stock allocation strategies and implementing them in cooperation and/or agreement with local wholesalers”. It has been a while since stock management has been subject to scrutiny by the Commission, and this is likely to be an unwelcome development for the industry more widely. For now, it is probably safe to assume that this aspect of the investigation is ancillary to the primary case on pricing issues.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, the date for an appeal of the (now-published) Pfizer/Flynn decision has been set by the Competition Appeal Tribunal – a four-week hearing is due to start on 30 October.