A first for the Eu­ro­pean Com­mis­sion: Five phar­ma com­pa­nies fined $14M for API price fix­ing

The Eu­ro­pean Com­mis­sion on Thurs­day an­nounced a first for its reg­u­la­tion of the phar­ma in­dus­try: It’s fin­ing five phar­ma com­pa­nies — Al­ka­loids of Aus­tralia, Al­ka­loids Cor­po­ra­tion, Boehringer In­gel­heim, Lin­nea and Tran­so-Pharm — €13.4 mil­lion ($14.2 mil­lion) for col­lud­ing to fix the price of a phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal in­gre­di­ent used in a drug to treat stom­ach cramps.

The Com­mis­sion said its in­ves­ti­ga­tion re­vealed that six com­pa­nies — the sixth com­pa­ny C2 Phar­ma re­vealed the price fix­ing to the Com­mis­sion and was not fined — co­or­di­nat­ed and agreed to fix the min­i­mum sales price of the in­gre­di­ent, known as N-butyl­bro­mide scopo­lamine/hyoscine, which is com­mon­ly used in the an­ti­spas­mod­ic drug Bus­co­pan as well as in its gener­ic ver­sions. The in­gre­di­ents were shipped to cus­tomers such as dis­trib­u­tors and gener­ic drug­mak­ers, and the com­pa­nies col­lab­o­rat­ed to al­lo­cate quo­tas.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER