UK competition authority accuses Concordia of price gouging

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority, has provisionally found that Concordia (TSX: CXR) abused a dominant position to overcharge the country’s National Health Service (NHS) for an essential thyroid drug.

The CMA says that the Canadian pharma and medical devices company charged the NHS more than £34 million ($45 million) last year for liothyronine tablets, an increase from around £600,000 in 2006.

Concordia was the only supplier of the drug, which is used to treat hypothyroidism, a condition caused by a deficiency of the thyroid hormone.