European Commission launches probe into Aspen's pricing practices for five cancer drugs

The European Commission announced Monday a formal investigation into Aspen Pharmacare over suggestions that the company engaged in "excessive pricing" for five cancer medicines. The regulator said the probe will investigate whether Aspen abused a dominant market position in breach of EU antitrust rules.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, remarked "companies should be rewarded for producing these pharmaceuticals to ensure that they keep making them into the future." Vestager added "but when the price of a drug suddenly goes up by several hundred percent, this is something the Commission may look at."

According to the European Commission, the investigation concerns Aspen's pricing practices for niche medicines containing the active pharmaceutical ingredients chlorambucil, melphalan, mercaptopurine, tioguanine and busulfan. Aspen acquired the drugs after their patent protection expired, with the regulator noting that the company subsequently "imposed very significant and unjustified price increases of up to several hundred percent." The regulator added that Aspen is accused of threatening to withdraw the products in some markets in order to impose the price hikes, and has actually done so in certain cases.

The European Commission indicated that the investigation covers all of Europe except Italy, as the Italian competition authority adopted an infringement decision against Aspen last year, fining the drugmaker 5 million euros ($5.5 million). The regulator added that this is its first probe into concerns about excessive pricing practices in the pharmaceutical industry.