The Competition Council announced on Tuesday that it had launched an industry inquiry into the pharmaceutical retail market to identify elements that could limit patient access to medicines dispensed through pharmacies.

What exactly is the body checking and what are the consequences of the investigation?

According to the body, both supply relations at the level of pharmacies, as well as the circulation of drugs from the market to the consumer, as well as the relevant legislation in this field, will be analyzed in order to identify norms that may affect competition in the market. market. The availability of medicines for patients will also be analyzed in detail and ways to improve it will be determined.

During the analysis of the pharmaceutical retail market in Romania, the competition authority may request information and documents from all participants, companies or authorities.

Based on the results of the analysis, the Competition Council can propose recommendations, that is, measures to eliminate, mitigate and prevent any negative impact on competition and, indirectly, on consumers, and in case of detection of violations of the law, initiate the necessary procedures for their punishment.

In this context, the authorities say that they want to cooperate with both government institutions and companies that can send any relevant information.

• “The pharmaceutical sector is very important, and the activities of recent years confirm this: we have imposed sanctions against five pharmaceutical companies and a representative association because they have concertedly restricted the immunoglobulin market, we have started an investigation on the ultrasound market, we are conducting surprise inspections. in Romania, Italy and Germany, and we are investigating possible abuse in the marketing of oral anticoagulants.”, – said Bohdan Chiritsoyu, President of the Competition Council.

Other recent pharmaceutical investigations and sanctions

The office notes that it conducted several analyzes of the pharmaceutical market, after which it developed a number of recommendations, which were taken into account by the Ministry of Health in legislative acts in the field.

As a result, patients pay less for certain drugs under the recommendation to lower the prices of off-patent innovative drugs to the level of generic drugs. Also, according to the proposal of the Competition Council, an obligation was introduced to provide drug stocks to both manufacturers and distributors, and pharmacies are obliged to send substantiated orders to distributors within 24/48 hours and fulfill them to patients.

In addition, at the proposal of the Competition Authority, the geographical criterion, which prevented the opening of new pharmacies, was abolished, which contributed to the improvement of patient access to pharmaceutical services. Recently, the Competition Authority has produced a number of guidelines to help customers distinguish between over-the-counter (OTC – Over The Counter) medicines and dietary supplements.

The Competition Council also fined five companies (Baxalta Gmbh, Switzerland, CSL Behring Gmbh, Germany, Biotest AG, Germany, Kedrion Spa, Italy, Octapharma AG, Switzerland) suppliers of immunoglobulins and other medicinal products obtained from of human plasma, as well as the representative of the association of producers of plasma protein therapy – PPTA (Belgium) for limiting and even stopping the supply of immunoglobulins to the Romanian market.

In May, the Competition Council launched an investigation into the market for medical equipment such as ultrasound machines, with indications of an agreement to restrict the sale of Esaote brand ultrasound equipment in Romania.

The authority is also conducting an investigation into possible abuse by the company Boehringer Ingelheim RCV Gmbh&CO KG for blocking by competitors on the Romanian market the marketing of oral anticoagulants and drugs intended for the treatment of chronic obstructive bronchopneumopathy.

With regard to pharmaceutical transactions, the Competition Council has set some conditions in situations where it has doubts about the impact on the market. For example, Penta Group/Dr. In order to acquire A&D Pharma Holdings, Max had to sell 18 Arta pharmacies in Bucharest and Timisoara.

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