Aspen faces fine in Italy
The JSE-listed pharma group says it did not tell shareholders as the €5.2m fine is ‘immaterial’ in the broader Aspen context
JSE-listed Aspen Pharmacare had not told shareholders about the €5.2m fine it was facing from the Italian Competition Authority (ICA) for alleged unfair pricing for its cancer drugs, because the value of the fine was "immaterial" in the broader Aspen context and did not justify an announcement, it said on Tuesday. The fine, about R78m in rand terms, relates to price increases on four of Aspen’s drugs used in the treatment of blood cancers: Leukeran, Alkeran, Purinethol and Tioguanine. The ICA said on Friday it would fine Aspen for fixing unfair prices on these drugs, which it purchased from GlaxoSmithKline. Aspen had used the threat of interrupting the supply of the drugs to the Italian market to win price increases from the Italian Medicines Agency ranging between 300% and 1,500% of the initial prices, the ICA said. This was in contravention of the EU’s rules, the authority said. The ICA said its investigation took into consideration, among other aspects, the cost to manufacture th...
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