UK fines Pfizer £63m for charging NHS 'unfairly high prices' for epileptic drug        

Over a four-year period, Pfizer charged prices between 780% and 1,600% higher than Epanutin sold for previously

Pfizer and Flynn Pharma were fined a combined £70m (€82m) after Britain's competition authorities said the firms charged “unfairly high prices” for a drug used to control epileptic seizures. Pfizer was fined £63m and Flynn Pharma, £6.7m, the Competition and Markets Authority said.  

The companies exploited a loophole by de-branding the drug known as Epanutin, so that its price wasn’t regulated the same way as other branded drugs. 

Over a four-year period, Pfizer charged prices between 780% and 1,600% higher than it sold for previously. The UK’s National Health Service had no choice to pay the inflated final price, the CMA regulator said. “These firms illegally exploited their dominant positions to charge the NHS excessive prices and make more money for themselves – meaning patients and taxpayers lost out,” CMA chief Andrea Coscelli said in the statement.

The decision follows a 2020 ruling by the UK's Court of Appeal that declared the CMA’s previous investigation was “insufficiently deep or intense”. The CMA had initially imposed what was at the time a record penalty of £84.2m on Pfizer but was forced to reopen the probe. 

The firms said they would be appealing for a second time. “Pfizer disagrees with the CMA’s latest infringement decision,” a Pfizer spokesperson said. 

A spokesperson from Flynn Pharma said it was “surprised and disappointed” by the decision. “The original CMA case was fundamentally flawed, and that view is unchanged in regard to the second decision,” the person said. 

Bloomberg