LONDON, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Tuesday accused Canadian pharmaceutical company Concordia of abusing its dominant position to overcharge the National Health Service (NHS) by millions of dollars for an essential thyroid drug.
In a statement, the CMA said an investigation found that last year, the NHS spent more than 34 million pounds (45 million U.S. dollars) on the drug, an increase from around 600,000 pounds (794,000 U.S. dollars) in 2006.
The amount the NHS paid for each pack of the tablets rose from around 5.90 U.S. dollars before it was de-branded in 2007 to almost 342 U.S. dollars in July 2017, an increase of almost 6,000 percent, while production costs remained broadly stable, said the CMA.
Liothyronine tablets are primarily used to treat hypothyroidism, a condition caused by a deficiency of thyroid hormone affecting at least two in every 100 people and which can lead to depression, tiredness, and weight gain.
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."
Coscelli added: "At this stage in the investigation, our findings are provisional and there has been no definitive decision that there has been a breach of competition law. We will carefully consider any representations from the companies before deciding whether the law has in fact been broken."
The claims against Concordia are the latest in a number of CMA cases in the pharmaceutical sector, including a recent fine against Pfizer and Flynn Pharma of nearly 120 million U.S. dollars in relation to excessive and unfair prices for an anti-epilepsy drug.
In a statement, Concordia said: "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. Over that time, significant investment has been made in this medicine to ensure its continued availability for patients in the UK, to the specifications required by the medicines and health care products regulatory agency in the UK. We will review the CMA's preliminary position and we will be responding to it in detail."
