Groups of U.K. advocacy organizations are pressing for an investigation into suspected “cartel-like” anticompetitive behavior spearheaded by prominent Big Pharma companies and an industry trade group.
Global Justice Now, Balanced Economy Project and Just Treatment cosigned a Sept. 26 letter to the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) calling out Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca and Merck for allegedly acting in concert with U.K. trade group the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) to drive up drug prices in the U.K., Politico reported. The letter calls for the CMA to “urgently open an investigation.”
The groups pointed to a “pattern” of paused U.K. investments, Balanced Economy explained in a Sept. 29 press release. Together, AstraZeneca, Lilly and Merck have paused more than 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) in U.K. investments over the past year, the advocacy organizations pointed out.
“We believe there is a significant risk that a number of companies, in partnership with their representative trade body, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), have been making and timing their actions and announcements in a coordinated manner to align business strategies for anti-competitive purposes,” the groups note in the letter.
Last month saw a rapid U.K. investment exodus from the named drugmakers, starting with Merck’s switch-up on a 1 billion euro ($1.31 billion) R&D center and U.K. headquarters. The company further opted to discontinue all of its research operations in Britain, citing the “challenges of the U.K. not making meaningful progress towards addressing the lack of investment in the life science industry.”
Shortly after, AstraZeneca paused a 200 million euro ($271 million) investment in its Cambridge, England, research site, which followed a January cancellation of a planned 450 million euro ($605 million) investment at its Speke, Liverpool, vaccine production site.
Eli Lilly, too, said it was waiting to finalize its investment in a Lilly Gateway Labs site in the U.K. as it sought “more clarity around the U.K. life sciences environment." The pause in its U.K. investment was first announced in August. Later, Lilly’s CEO David Ricks would tell the Financial Times that the U.K. is “probably the worst country in Europe” for drug pricing and that England is “not an attractive environment for investment.”
The “constant drumbeat of stories building pressure on the U.K. government” looks “extremely suspicious,” Just Treatment’s Diarmaid McDonald said in the release. To hear the Balanced Economy Project tell it, these actions are a “major red flag of potential cartel behavior in a heavily concentrated market that is vital for public health.”
Merck, AZ and the ABPI did not immediately respond to Fierce Pharma’s request for comment. Lilly declined to comment on the matter.
The letter also suggests that the companies are using “Trump’s chaotic trade policy” to leverage demands for higher U.K. prices, director of Global Justice Now Nick Dearden commented in the release.
As President Donald Trump unrolls his most favored nation U.S. drug pricing system, companies may follow the lead of Bristol Myers Squibb, which last week pledged to offer its schizophrenia treatment Cobenfy in the U.K. for the same higher price it does in the U.S.