European Commission Starts Inquiry Against Aspen Pharma on Account of Allegedly Excessive Prices for Cancer Medication
- 15/05/2017
- Articles
The European Commission (the “Commission”) announced on 15 May 2017 that it has opened formal competition proceedings against Aspen Pharma (“Aspen”) over concerns that Aspen indulged in excessive pricing when commercialising its portfolio of 5 cancer medicines which it had acquired from GlaxoSmithKline after the patents in the active substances had expired (see attached press release). The Commission said it would investigate whether Aspen is guilty of price gouging, i.e., applying very significant and allegedly unjustified price increases, in breach of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The Commission’s investigation covers the territory of all of the European Economic Area, with the exception of Italy where Aspen had already been fined EUR 5 million by the Italian competition authority in September 2016. That case led in February 2017 to a further procedure against Aspen in Spain.
The pursuit of supposedly excessive pharmaceutical prices by competition authorities is a relatively recent phenomenon with enforcement action in countries such as Italy and the United Kingdom. At the end of January 2017, European Commissioner Vestager, responsible for competition matters, endorsed this effort in a speech to the Danish pharmaceutical association. The Commission has now shown that it will not shy away from mounting an excessive pricing case of its own in the sector.