End of abuses of dominant position for the South African laboratory Aspen Pharmacare.
The European Commission has forced it to divide by four on average its prices for six anticancer drugs distributed in Europe and used for severe forms of blood cancer.
Enough to allow
"European health systems to save tens of millions of euros,"
says Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
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Brussels had opened a case against this lab in 2017 after having observed dizzying price increases in Europe since 2012. Its anticancer drugs have not been covered by patents for decades but there is no generic or equivalent treatment that doctors could prescribe in place.
The Durban company has therefore exploded its prices for ten years and reaped
"very high profits",
without comparison with the level of profit of the pharmaceutical sector, indicates Brussels.
The discounts obtained by the Commission bring the prices of anti-cancer drugs back below their 2012 level, for a guaranteed period of at least ten years.
However, Brussels did not impose a fine on the laboratory.
A choice opposite to that of the Italian authorities, who imposed a sanction of 5.2 million euros on Aspen
The lab, which generates 36% of its sales in Europe (38.7 billion rand, or 2.2 billion euros in 2020), has also committed to supply the EU for at least five years.
The European Commission has welcomed that
"the final Aspen commitments offer a rapid, comprehensive and lasting solution to the problems".
However, Brussels did not impose a fine on the laboratory.
An opposite choice to that of the Italian authorities, which took up the case nationally in 2016 and imposed a sanction of 5.2 million euros on Aspen, comments the law firm Bureau Brandeis.
Choosing not to sanction Aspen sends labs
"the message that they can over-price"
for years and
"escape any sanction"
as long as they then lower their prices, lawyers say.
