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The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) has upheld the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) findings against two pharmaceutical manufacturers who consistently overcharged hydrocortisone tablets for over a decade. Auden/Actavis UK's pricing for the critical medicine 'hydrocortisone' from 2008 to 2018 constituted an abuse of their dominant market position, leading to fines nearing £130 million, CMA said in a statement. "These companies increased the price of this crucial medicine by over 10,000 per cent, soaring from 70p to £72 within that period. These are the highest ever CMA penalties upheld by the Tribunal," the CMA said. In July 2021, the CMA imposed fines exceeding £265 million on hydrocortisone manufacturers Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK, which acquired Auden's business in 2015 and subsequently became Accord-UK. The fines were imposed for abuse of dominance and collusion by both the parent companies and potential competitors. The recent verdict, announced on September 18, comes five weeks after the Tribunal supported the CMA's decision in a separate case regarding the pricing of medicines supplied to the NHS. In that prior case, fines amounted to £84 million.

The Competition and Markets Authority(CMA) has disqualified a former director of the pharmaceutical wholesaler Lexon for allegedly breaking competition law. Pritesh Sonpal - who has been accused of illegally sharing commercially sensitive information with competitors - will not be allowed to take up any director role or be involved in the management of any company based in England, Scotland or Wales for four years. The CMA in March 2020 found that Lexon - along with the pharmaceutical companies King Pharmaceuticals and Alissa Healthcare Research - illegally shared commercially sensitive information about the antidepressant nortriptyline, used by thousands of NHS patients, to inflate the price. Lexon was fined £1.2 million for breaking competition law. The government watchdog said between 2015 and 2017, when the cost of the drug was falling, the three companies exchanged information about prices, the volumes they were supplying and Alissa's plans to enter the market, in order to reduce competition.

Britain's competition watchdog has fined pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Flynn £63 million and £6.7 million respectively for allegedly breaking competition law and illegally profiting from the sale of an anti-epilepsy drug. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that the two companies colluded to sell phenytoin sodium capsules, previously known as Epanutin, at "unfairly high prices" for over four over years between 2012 and 2016. The annual costs of the capsules for the NHS increased from £2 million in 2012 to approximately £50 million the following year. CMA has accused Pfizer of charging, over four years, prices between 780 per cent and 1,600 per cent higher than what was fixed previously for the medicine used to prevent life-threatening epileptic seizures. Pfizer supplied the drug to Flynn, which then sold the capsules on to wholesalers and pharmacies at a price between 2,300 per cent and 2,600 per cent higher than the prices previously charged by Pfizer.

Advanz Pharma, alongside London-based private equity firms Cinven and HgCapital, is collectively confronted with an £84 million penalty for inflating the price of the thyroid drug by over 1,000 per cent, soaring from £20 to £248 per package over an eight-year period. The Competition Appeal Tribunal endorsed 'all key aspects' of the Competition and Markets Authority's verdict on the companies' culpability in the case, the CMA has said. Advanz stood as the sole supplier of liothyronine tablets, essential for treating thyroid hormone deficiency, with the cost of a packet of these tablets surging over 12-fold between 2009 and 2017. Although Advanz Pharma currently possesses ownership of the company, its former owners, PE firms Cinven and HgCapital, also bear responsibility for the imposed fine, the CMA said. "NHS annual spending on the tablets in 2006, the year before the implementation of the strategy, was £600,000, but by 2009 had increased to more than £2.3 million and jumped to more than £30 million by 2016," Britain's competition watchdog said.