UK regulator keeps IMS pharmaceutical data undertakings in place

The UK Competition Commission (CC) has decided against varying or removing undertakings which restrict the way in which pharma business information provider IMS Health sells its specialized pharmaceutical data services.

This confirms the CC’s provisional decision, which was published at the end of last year (The Pharma Letter December 26, 2013).

The CC has concluded that, despite the publication of National Health Servicer prescription data, IMS still faces limited competition in this market - and that, without the undertakings, IMS could use its position to create bundled products and stymie any emerging competitors. It has found that the NHS prescription data is not yet frequent or extensive enough across the whole of the UK for IMS’s competitors to use it as an alternative data source or for its customers to self-supply.