Drug firm fined £10m for breaking law over heartburn medicine
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) hit the group with the penalty after Reckitt admitted anti-competitive behaviour in supplying heartburn treatment to the health service – a market costing the NHS 15m to 20 m a year.
The competition watchdog, which first made the claims in February, said Reckitt sought to restrict competition to its Gaviscon treatment by offering family doctors only a more expensive version of the product when they searched prescribing software.
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Hide AdReckitt admitted infringing UK and European competition law. The OFT said the firm's admission and early co-operation saw the fine reduced from a potential 12m.
Doctors use software to search for well-branded products and then provide patients with an "open" prescription that lists generic names too.
Pharmacies can then choose whether to dispense the brand or a cheaper rival, at considerable cost savings to the NHS.
The OFT said Reckitt deliberately took a sister product off the list in 2005 just before cheaper generic rivals were added.
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Hide AdThis timing meant that an NHS doctor searching for "Gaviscon" would instead bring up its "Gaviscon Advance Liquid" – a patent-protected version which did not have the "open" prescription that would have allowed generic rivals to be shown to GPs, according to the OFT.
OFT chief executive John Fingleton said: "Vigorous competition between firms supplying the public sector is vital to ensure taxpayers get the best value for money.
"This case underlines our determination to prevent companies with a dominant position in a market from using their strength to seek to restrict competition from rivals.
"The imposition of penalties should serve to deter firms from engaging in anti-competitive behaviour of this sort in future."
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Hide AdReckitt said: "This OFT investigation relates to an infringement that took place a number of years ago under a highly complex area of competition law, on which there have only more recently been clarifying cases."