Friday 16 December 2016

Watchdog accuses Actavis of hiking price of lifesaving drug by 12,000%

Watchdog accuses Actavis of hiking price of lifesaving drug by 12,000% Pharmaceutical firm challenged over price rise for hydrocortisone tablets from 70p to £88 per tablet, costing NHS tens of millions of pounds extra each year

Pharmaceutical company Actavis is facing accusations from the competition watchdog that it hiked the price of life-saving hydrocortisone tablets by over 12,000%, sending the annual cost to the NHS spiralling from £522,000 before 2008 to £70m by 2015.

The Competition and Markets Authority said the price rises took place after the patent lapsed on the drug. About 943,000 packets of the tablets – prescribed to people whose adrenal glands do not produce enough steroid hormones, such as those suffering from Addison’s disease – were distributed over the last year. Continue reading... The Guardian

See also:

No comments:

Post a Comment