Pharmaceutical companies face EUR 72mn in fines over deal on reimbursable medicines

The Lithuanian competition authority Konkurencijos taryba has found that the Lithuanian Pharmacy Association (LPA) and 8 pharmaceutical companies agreed on the margins of reimbursable medicines. The infringement of the Law on Competition and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union resulted in more than EUR 72 million in fines, the competition authority said in its press release on Tuesday.

Konkurencijos taryba found that in 2017 the Ministry of Health of Lithuania (Ministry) decided to assess the need to change the retail and wholesale margins of pharmaceuticals and thus asked the association to submit proposed margins based on economic calculations.