The pharmaceutical sector has been investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for suspected breaches of competition legislation for alleged unfair pricing. The allegations of unfair pricing could have a severe knock-on effect on the NHS which is already in a vulnerable state.<\/p>\n
The investigation into the unfair pricing was opened in October 2016. A large degree of scrutiny and information gathering is usually completed before the CMA will come to a definitive conclusion as to whether the pharmaceutical company have breached competition laws – namely Chapter II of the Competition Act (CA) and Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).<\/p>\n
The key issue here though is whether unfair pricing is needlessly costing the NHS too much. If so, the repercussions for this – given the state of our NHS – could be significant.
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The pharmaceutical company in question is Concordia International RX (UK) Limited (Concordia) which is a subsidiary company of Concordia International Corporation. They reportedly have a portfolio of delivering pharmaceutical products to patients in over 100 countries.<\/p>\n
It’s alleged that Concordia is charging excessive prices in the supply of certain pharmaceutical products, with one of their biggest clients being the NHS. According to the Guardian, Concordia has risen 32 drug prices by more than 1,000% in the past 5 years. One example of a price hike is of the cost of fusidic acid eye drops for bacterial conjunctivitis which rose from \u00a32.09 in May 2013 to \u00a329.06 in April 2016.<\/p>\n
With the NHS “on the brink of breakdown”, inflated drug and medicine prices is certainly not what they need right now. It’s no secret that cuts and underfunding to the NHS has placed them in a more vulnerable state, and higher prices for drugs could mean even less resources and\/or funding in other key areas of NHS services.<\/p>\n
Costs need to be kept down in the NHS without compromising on the quality of care. How is this possible if the NHS are being grossly overcharged for drugs?<\/p>\n