Five drugs firms and private equity groups have been fined more than £35 million by the UK’s competition watchdog for colluding to restrict the supply of an anti-nausea tablet, driving up NHS prices dramatically.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said drugs firms Alliance Pharmaceuticals, Lexon, Medreich and former and current private owners of Focus, Advanz and Cinven, had broken the law by striking an illegal arrangement over the supply of Prochlorperazine – an important treatment for nausea, dizziness and migraines.
The NHS saw the price of the drug surge by 700% from £6.49 per pack of 50 tablets to £51.68 between 2013 and 2017, according to the CMA.
