Italian Antitrust Authority completes pricing compliance investigation into Aspen

Last month, the Italian Antitrust Authority (ICA) closed the proceedings launched to verify South Africa-based Aspen Pharma’s (JSE: APN) compliance with its decision of September 2016. Aspen appealed the decision in October that year.

As a result of the Authority’s investigation, the prices of some anticancer drugs distributed in Italy by Aspen decreased by as much as 82%. According to the ICA, the company had earlier fixed unfair prices with increases up to 1,500%.

On September 29, 2016, the Authority found that some companies of the Aspen Group abused their dominant position by pressuring AIFA, the pharmaceutical regulator, into accepting excessively high prices for the following anticancer drugs: Leukeran (2mg - 25 tablets), Alkeran (50mg/10mg powder and solvent for injectable solution - 1 bottle), Alkeran (2mg - 25 tablets), Purinethol (50mg - 25 tablets), Tioguanine (40mg - 25 tablets).