Alchem dragged into EU pharma cartel case

The European Commission (EC) has accused privately-held active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturer Alchem International of breaching European Union antitrust rules by participating in a long-lasting cartel concerning an important pharmaceutical product.

Alchem is a producer of the pharmaceutical ingredient n-butylbromide scopolamine/hyoscine (SNBB), an important input material to produce the abdominal antispasmodic drugs, Buscopan, and its generic versions.

"Alchem now has the possibility to respond"The EC has expressed concerns that the Indian company may have coordinated and agreed with other market participants to fix the minimum sales price of SNBB to distributors and generic drug manufacturers, and to allocate quotas.