NHS drug cheat row

Taxpayer ‘ripped off by £100m’

WATCHDOGS have accused a Canadian drugs firm of overcharging the NHS £100million in the past decade for a life-changing treatment.

Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority said Concordia International hiked the price of a thyroid drug by nearly 6,000% in a provisional finding released yesterday.

Concordia joins a list of pharmaceutical giants accused of unfairly increasing the price of NHS drugs.

CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said: “Pharmaceutical companies which abuse their position and overcharge for drugs are forcing the NHS – and the UK taxpayer – to pay over the odds for important medical treatments. We allege that Concordia used its market dominance in the supply of liothyronine tablets to do exactly that.”

The tablets are primarily used to treat hypothyroidism, a condition caused by a deficiency of thyroid hormone affecting at least one in 50 people and which can lead to depression, tiredness and weight gain.

The CMA said the NHS spent more than £34m on the firm’s liothyronine drug last year, up from around £600,000 in 2006. The amount it paid per pack rose from around £4.46 in 2007 to £258.19 by July 2017, an increase of 6,000%.

Concordia hit back, saying: “We do not believe that competition law has been infringed.

“The pricing of liothyronine has been conducted openly and transparently with the Department of Health in the UK over a period of 10 years.”

Last year, the CMA fined drugs giant Pfizer a record £84m for ripping off the NHS after a 2,600% hike in the price of pills relied on by epilepsy sufferers.

It also fined several pharmaceutical firms a total of £45m in relation to anti-depressant medicine paroxetine.

Both rulings are being appealed.