EC opens investigation into Aspen's EU pricing practices

The European Commission began a formal investigation of Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd. (JSE:APN) amid concerns that the company breached EU antitrust rules by excessively raising the prices of five off-patent cancer medicines: chlorambucil, melphalan, mercaptopurine, tioguanine and busulfan.

The EC said the investigation will look into claims that the company engaged in "price-gouging" by imposing "very significant and unjustified price increases of up to several hundred percent." The Commission said the investigation will cover all of the European Economic Area, except for Italy, where the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) has already issued a decision on the matter. Last October the ICA fined Apsen more than €5 million ($5.5 million) after determining it had engaged in a price negotiation strategy for the medicines in question "so aggressive as to reach the credible threat of interrupting the direct supply of drugs" to the market...