DA to ask Competition Commission to probe Aspen anti-competitive allegations
19 April 2017
The DA will today write to the Competition Commission (CC) and the Medicines Control Council (MCC), as the body responsible for the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry in South Africa, to request that they investigate the market conduct of leading South African pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare.
Recent reports in the United Kingdom and South Africa detailed how staff at Aspen Pharmacare allegedly plotted to dispose of life-saving cancer medication in order to drive up their price across Europe.
According to the London-based Times, ‘The price rises meant that the cost of Busulfan, used by leukaemia patients, rose from £5.20 to £65.22 a pack in England and Wales during 2013, an increase of more than 1,100 per cent. The prices of chlorambucil, also used to treat blood cancer, rose from £8.36 to £40.51 a pack in the same year.’