The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7230 p3
4 January 2003

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

News summary

Related websites
DoH: Directorate of Counter Fraud Services (more)

Generics companies are sued for £28m

The Government is suing three generics companies for damages of more than £28m plus interest, alleging that the companies conspired to fix the supply and price of warfarin products and, as a result, overcharged the National Health Service.

The civil proceedings, which are separate from the Serious Fraud Office investigation of six generics companies, were instigated at the High Court on 20 December 2002. The Secretary of State for Health, the Prescription Pricing Authority and 28 strategic health authorities in England are suing Norton Healthcare Ltd, and its subsidiary Norton Pharmaceuticals, Regent-GM Laboratories and Goldshield Group Plc, and its subsidiaries Goldshield Pharmaceuticals and Forley Generics. The claim covers the period 1996 to 2000.

Jim Gee, director of the NHS Counter Fraud Service (CFS), said that further civil proceedings are likely as a result of ongoing CFS investigations into the supply of other generic products.

Norton Healthcare (now trading as IVAX Pharmaceuticals) said it believes that its sales of warfarin have always been in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. “The company strongly refutes the allegation and is co-operating fully to provide all the relevant information to repudiate this claim,” it said in a statement.