Drug firms in 2,600% price hike rip off NHS

TWO drug firms have been accused of costing the NHS millions by raising the price of life-saving epilepsy medication by up to 2,600 per cent.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Flynn ‘exploited a loophole’ by debranding the drug, which helps prevent and control fits.

This meant they could ramp up the price because the treatment – known as Epanutin prior to September 2012 – was not subject to the same regulation as branded medications.

The NHS had to pay ‘unfairly high prices’ as Pfizer and Flynn were the dominant suppliers.

Health Service spending on the medication soared overnight. In 2012 it paid around £2million for a year’s supply, but by 2013 this hit around £50million.

For more than four years, the competition watchdog said, Pfizer’s prices were between 780 per cent and 1,600 per cent higher than it had previously charged.

The US company then supplied the drug to Flynn, based in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, which sold it on to wholesalers and pharmacies at prices between 2,300 per cent and 2,600 per cent higher than they had previously paid. CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said: ‘Thousands of patients depend on this drug to prevent life-threatening seizures.

‘Protecting these patients, the NHS and the taxpayers who fund it is our priority.’

The CMA had previously imposed a £90million fine on Pfizer and Flynn for the price increases following an investigation in 2016 – £84.2million on Pfizer and £5.2million on Flynn.

The firms appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which upheld some of the CMA’s findings but did not agree that the price rises were an unlawful ‘abuse’ of dominance.

The CMA took the case to the Court of Appeal, where judges ruled that it had correctly applied the legal test for unfair pricing. This allowed the CMA to reopen its investigation, and reimpose the blockbuster fine.

Flynn said it was ‘disappointed’ and the case was ‘fundamentally flawed’.

Pfizer said it was co-operating with the CMA.

Last month, the CMA fined the drug firms Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK £260million for charging ‘excessively’ for life-saving hydrocortisone tablets.

It also fined Advanz £100million after the firm increased the price of thyroid tablet packs by 1,110 per cent from £20 in 2009 to £248 in 2017.

‘Protecting taxpayers’