British company deliberately hiked price of life-saving drug, court rules

The NHS was forced to spend over £80m a year on hydrocortisone tablets after the price was rigged

Drug company Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK rigged the price of hydrocortisone tablets over 10 years. File photo. (Julien Behal/PA Wire)

British taxpayers were forced to pay millions of pounds for a life-saving drug after a pharmaceutical company deliberately inflated the cost, a court has ruled.

Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK, now known as Accord-UK, engaged in “cartel behaviour” by paying off competitors and raising the price of hydrocortisone tablets by 10,000 per cent between 2008 and 2018.

NHS spending on the treatment then rose from around £500,000 a year to over £80m due to the company’s monopoly, the Court of Appeal heard.

The drug is used by tens of thousands of people in the UK to treat, in some cases, life-threatening conditions such as Addison’s disease.

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Hydrocortisone tablets are used by tens of thousands of people to treat, in some cases, life-threatening conditions (PA Archive)

In 2021, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that the company had charged excessive and unfair prices for the hydrocortisone tablets.

But the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) overturned the decision earlier this year - meaning the £106m fines the company faced were thrown out.

Now, the Court of Final Appeal has upheld the CMA’s original decision.

Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the CMA, said: “When the CAT decided the CMA’s decision should be set aside despite being correct on the merits, we remained determined to see the case through and took the fastest route to correct this.

“We’re delighted that the Court of Appeal recognised that the CMA’s case was consistent, clear and fairly defended on appeal.”

Between 2011 and 2015, Auden, which merged with Actavis in 2015, agreed to make substantial monthly payments to pharmaceutical company Wayside in exchange for that company agreeing not to market its own version of the drug, the CMA found.

It also found that Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK agreed to make substantial monthly payments to drug company AMCo in exchange for it agreeing not to go to market independently with its own tablets between 2012 and 2016.

Previously, the CMA described the company’s arrangements as “flagrantly anti-competitive” and “cartel behaviour”.

Hydrocortisone is a steroid medicine. It works by calming down your body’s immune response to reduce pain, itching and swelling, according to the NHS. It can also be used as hormone replacement for people who do not have enough of the natural stress hormone cortisol.