Will Merck See A $100 Million Fine, In The UK -- Just As Pfizer Saw?

While Kenilworth can certainly absorb such an amount, it is not optimal for its global reputation to be labeled "anti-competitive" -- by a UK regulator. [Just one of many backgrounders here -- this one from October of 2015.] Pfizer paid about $100 million, in fines for its pricing tactics, related to Epanutin -- an epilepsy drug, in the UK at Christmas 2016.

The finding regarding Merck is still preliminary, and through settlement negotiations (and appeals), may be reversed. Even so, Merck has seen bio-similar incursion, in this market as the graphic indicates, from its peak UK sales years of 2014-15. From The Independent (UK), then:

. . . .According to the Competition and Markets Authority’s provisional findings released on Tuesday, one of the US company’s European units - Merck Sharp & Dohme - abused its dominant market position through a discount scheme for the drug Remicade – generically known as infliximab – which is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease.

"The CMA has provisionally found that MSD broke competition law by abusing its dominant position through a discount scheme for Remicade that was likely to restrict competition from 'biosimilar' versions of infliximab that were new to the market," the competition watchdog said in a statement.. . .

Now you know -- as the whole fam-damily evaporates, once more -- on a rainy train ride in. . . . smile.

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