EUROPEAN COMMISSION SEEKS FEEDBACK ON COMMITMENTS IN PHARMA SECTOR
28/07/2020
The European Commission announced that it invites comments from all interested parties on commitments offered by Aspen to address the Commission's concerns over excessive pricing.
Following the investigation, Commission raised serious concerns that Aspen has been abusing its dominant position in numerous national markets by charging excessive prices for critical off-patent cancer medicines. These concerns based on following determination:
- After acquiring the cancer medicines from another company, Aspen started to increase its prices in several EU countries in 2012 and then implemented the same strategy in all other countries in Europe where Aspen sold the medicines,
- After the price increases, Aspen has consistently earned very high profits from its sale of cancer medicines in Europe, both in absolute terms and when compared with the profit levels of similar companies in the industry,
- Aspen's prices exceeded its relevant costs by almost three hundred percent on average,
- The price increases imposed by Aspen were clearly disproportionate to any additional costs incurred,
- When national authorities tried to resist Aspen's requests for price increases, Aspen went as far as threatening to withdraw the medicines from the national list of reimbursable medicines.
Commission stated that its investigation has not revealed any justifications for Aspen's very high profit levels. After that, Aspen has offered the following commitments to address the Commission's competition concerns:
- Aspen will reduce its prices across Europe for the six cancer medicines by, on average, approximately %73,
- These prices will be the maximum that Aspen can charge for the coming ten years. They will start taking effect already as of October 2019, and
- Aspen guarantees the supply of the medicines for the next five years, and, for an additional five-year period, will either continue to supply or make its marketing authorisation available to other suppliers.
As a result, The Commission has invited all interested parties to submit their views on Aspen's proposed commitments within two months from their publication in the Official Journal.
(EU Commission – 14.07.2020)
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