The European Commission imposed fines of a total of 10.4 million euros on a group of pharmaceutical companies for dividing the market and fixing the prices of the important ingredient for the spasm drug “Buscopan”.
The commission found that the companies “Behringer”, “Alkaloids of Australia”, “Alkaloids Corporation”, “Linea”, “Transo-Pharm”, “C2 Pharma” and “Alchem” coordinated and agreed on the minimum selling price of the important ingredient “Buscopane” and its generic versions.
“These companies also set sales quotas and exchanged sensitive sales information,” the European Commission announced.
Illegal price fixing began in some cases as early as 2005 and lasted until 2019, and Behringer allegedly participated in the cartel from 2005 to 2014.
The largest fine of 10 million euros was imposed on “Behringer”, while “Transo-Pharm” and “Linea” have to pay amounts of around 100,000 euros and 1.8 million euros, respectively, because they cooperated in the investigation.
“Alkaloids of Australia” and “Alkaloids Corporation” were fined 500,000 euros each, while “C2 Pharma” avoided a fine because it informed the European Commission about the association.
Six companies recognized the association and concluded a settlement, while the exception is “Alchem”, against which the European Commission initiated legal proceedings, Srna reports.
