The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7335 p136
5 February 2005

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

Serious Fraud Office expands generics price-fixing inquiry

The Serious Fraud Office this week confirmed its investigation into suspected price-fixing by generics manufacturers and suppliers has been expanded to include more companies.

The SFO refused to say how many more companies were being included or the precise nature of the investigation. But pharmaceutical manufacturer Novartis has confirmed that one of its subsidiary companies, Sandoz Ltd, is subject to the broader investigation.

In a statement Novartis said that the SFO was investigating the “marketing practices” of a number of generics companies to discover whether “criminal or anti-competitive activity” may have taken place between January 1996 and the end of December 2000.

The SFO’s original investigation into suspected price-fixing by generics manufacturers and suppliers began in 2002 and focused on the activities of six companies.