The Office of Fair Trading has tried, and failed, to persuade the Restrictive
Practices Court that much of the evidence against the OFT’s application
to end resale price maintenance on medicines should be rejected.
Mrs Sheila Kelly (executive director, Proprietary Association of Great Britain)
told The Journal on October 24 that counsel for the OFT had begun to argue that
pharmaceutical witnesses could not legitimately be heard because they would
report hearsay, rather than give evidence. The judge (Mr Justice Lightman) had
said that the OFT should make a formal application on that point.
“This could have eliminated all our industry evidence, including that to
be given by Mr John D’Arcy (director, National Pharmaceutical Association),
Mrs Susan Sharpe (director of professional standards, Royal Pharmaceutical Society)
and Mr David Sharpe (chairman, Community Pharmacy Action Group),” Mrs Kelly
said. “We would have taken the matter to the Court of Appeal. It would
also have cut a swathe through the OFT’s evidence and the case could have
been over very quickly.”
It was a bizarre move, in Mrs Kelly’s opinion. The OFT had required huge
amounts of evidence to be gathered before the case and had then tried to have
most of it ruled out by the judge.
Following this, proceedings went in camera to hear commercially confidential
information provided by manufacturers. The court is expected to remain in camera
until November 1 or 2.