UK authority's 'concern' amid reports of generic price gouging

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has told The Pharma Letter that it continues to investigate suspected excessive pricing in the pharmaceutical industry. It follows reports surrounding massive price rises of more than 30 generic drugs, for which the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has had to foot the bill.

The Times newspaper links four companies to these price increases of at least 1,000%, naming the steroid hydrocortisone, which had its cost upped this year by 12,500% from 70p ($1.02) to £85, and cyclizine 30mg tablets, used to treat nausea, up from £9.57 to £353.06 a packet, as examples of the drugs affected.

Companies allegedly bought out-of-patent drugs which are no longer considered profitable by big pharma, acquired marketing rights, dropped the brand name and used the drug name to bypass NHS pricing controls.