BRACCO-BYK GULDEN ITALIA-FARMADES-NYCOMED AMERSHAM SORIN-SCHERING
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
The Bracco, Schering, Nycomed Amersham Sorin, Byk Gulden Italia e Farmades pharmaceutical companies found liable
The Competition Authority has resolved that the Bracco, Byk Gulden Italia, Farmades, Nycomed Amersham Sorin e Schering companies are liable for having infringed section 2 (2) of the Competition Act on the markets for the supply of for the supply of radiopaque agents in Italy. These are pharmaceutical specialties that are procured virtually in their entirety by Italian public hospitals and local health authorities (ASLs) to be used for radiological examinations, such as with TAC. In view of the seriousness of the offence, the Authority imposed a fine of 5.5% of the turnover of these companies on the relevant market, totalling about 8.5 billion lire.
The investigation began as a result of a complaint from a Local Health Authority which reported that there was an anomalous similarity of the prices charged by all the companies for non-ionic radiopaque agents for radiological use, suggesting the existence of a concerted agreement between the companies in relation to the following:
- system of common prices charged for their products;
- strategies to interfere with the competitive bidding of the Local Health Authorities (for example by sharing batches of orders and deciding on which companies would tender for individual orders);
- other forms of co-operation which included coordinating some of their promotional and advertising activities and through the systematic exchange of information on quantities of products sold.
The Authority also found that the companies had concluded a concerted agreement on a mechanism to get around the retail price-setting mechanism established by the Interdepartmental Economic Planning Committee (CIPE) based on average European prices. This enabled the companies to peg their common pricing levels jointly agreed upon between them for all items supplied to the Local Health Authorities.
The whole purpose of this was to avoid any possibility of competition for their products on the basis of their prices, and to interfere with competition for the supply of non-ionic radiopaque agents for radiological use to hospitals and Local Health Authorities.
In view of the serious nature and the duration of these offences (1995-1999) the Authority imposed the following fines (in lire):
| Company Bracco S.p.A. Schering S.p.A. Nycomed Amersham Sorin S.r.l. Byk Gulden Italia S.p.A. Farmades S.p.A. | Fine 3,938,950,730 2,379,511,251 1,362,258,595 464,894,100 320,752,779 |
Rome, 7 December 2000.