Eight months after convincing five companies to pay fines to settle antitrust claims, the European Commission has zeroed in on another firm, active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) manufacturer Alchem International, which decided not to participate in the original settlement deal.
The EC has accused India-based Alchem of engaging in a price-fixing cartel over the key ingredient found in a decades-old antispasmodic drug, Buscopan, and its generic versions. The treatment is for stomach cramps, including those associated with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
The ingredient is N-Butylbromide Scopolamine/ Hyoscine (SNBB). In its “statement of objections,” the EC claims that Alchem conspired with other producers of SNBB to fix a minimum sales price and to allocate quotas for its sale to distributors and manufacturers. The EC, which serves as the bloc’s antitrust watchdog, has also accused Alchem of exchanging commercially sensitive information with its competitors.
“European consumers may have suffered from restricted access to affordable medicines,” Margrethe Vestager, who runs the EC’s antitrust division, said in a release.
Alchem did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In October, the EC revealed that five companies, including Boehringer Ingelheim, had agreed to pay fines to settle claims that they participated in the price-fixing scheme. Boehringer’s fine was by far the steepest, at 10.4 million euros ($11.2 million).
The other four suppliers—Alkaloids of Australia, India-based Alkaloids Corporation, Swiss-based Linnea and Germany-based Transo-Pharm—agreed to pay a combined fine of 3 million euros ($3.2 million).
A sixth company that was accused, Ireland’s C2 Pharma, escaped a fine by revealing the cartel to investigators, the EC said. In agreeing to the fine, the other companies admitted their participation in the plan. The cartel ran from 2005 to 2019, according to the EC, with Boehringer opting out in 2014 and C2 Pharma quitting in 2016.
It is now up to Alchem to request an oral hearing to respond to the accusations. If the Commission concludes that there is evidence of infringement, it can prohibit the conduct and impose a fine up to 10% of the company’s annual revenue.