UK drugmakers accused of illegal market sharing in supply of antibiotic

The UK’s Competition and Marketing Authority (CMA) has provisionally found that sellers of the antibiotic nitrofurantoin broke competition law by arranging to carve up the market between them.

In a Statement of Objections issued Thursday the CMA alleges that, from 2014 until at least October 2017, two suppliers, AMCo (now Advanz Pharma Services) and Morningside, and a wholesaler, Alliance Healthcare, entered into arrangements under which Alliance Healthcare would buy equal volumes of the drug from each of the two suppliers so that they would not compete. During 2015 and 2016, the two suppliers also committed to supply the drug exclusively to Alliance Healthcare.

Nitrofurantoin is an antibiotic commonly used to treat urinary tract infections such as cystitis. While it is available as tablets and a liquid, this investigation focuses on the capsule forms (50mg and 100mg) which are a prescription-only medicine. AMCo was the sole UK supplier of both products, until Morningside entered the market in mid-2014.