Pharma sector under OFT scrutiny |
|
|
Published
:
Mon, 17 Oct 2005 16:05
|
LONDON: The newly appointed chief of the Office of Fair Trading, Philip Collins, has stirred up the pharmaceutical market. In the latest move by the OFT, he announced that some influential forces in the sector were keeping drug prices artificially high and restricting access to new and cheaper medicines.
He said the OFT planned to investigate if there is a nexus between drug companies and the National Health Service procurement system. Last month, the watchdog’s chairman Sir John Vickers had announced a review of the drug pricing scheme the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS).
The latest statement is likely to put some pharma majors on high alert. An earlier investigation had uncovered two pharma companies NAPP and Genzyme who were found to be manipulating the market.
Currently, some manufacturers of branded drugs are suspected of having deals with generic drug companies to ensure cheaper drugs do not arrive into the market sooner than they would like.
The watchdog which enforces competition laws and consumer protection said there appeared “to be some probable issues” that needed to be resolved (read ‘investigated’) especially as huge amounts of public money is being spent on this sector every year.
The government spends close to £15bn a year on the sector while consumers shell out £4.5bn on private healthcare. The OFT will scrutinise how new products come into the market, how they fare against the competition and also their pricing system.
Consumers have welcomed the investigation by the OFT as medicine prices in the UK continue to be high compared to those in other European nations.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Stock
Quotes * |
|
NASDAQ
|
|
2792.28 |
22.57 (
0.81 %)
|
| SYMBOL (
2012-01-19 ) |
| LAST |
CHANGE
|
|
CARNIVAL
(
11:35am )
|
|
2017.00 |
46.00 (
2.42 %)
|
|
WHITBREAD
(
11:35am )
|
|
1662.99 |
33.99 (
2.09 %)
|
| SYMBOL (
2012-01-19 )
|
| LAST |
CHANGE
|
|
IBM
(
12:34pm ) |
|
181.50 |
0.43 (
0.24 %)
|
| SYMBOL (
2012-01-19 )
|
| LAST |
CHANGE
|
|
|
Print this Story
Boots and Alliance UniChem in £7.5 billion merger talks 