Following a two-year investigation, Roche (RHHBY) was fined $14 million by antitrust authorities in Romania for using different tactics to impede competition to a pair of its cancer medicines, the latest effort by European governments to crack down on anti-competitive practices.
In one instance, Roche allegedly monopolized the market for Rituxan and Herceptin by undercutting rival bidders in auctions that were held to supply a national program for cancer medicines as well as hospitals. Specifically, the drug maker sold the medicines at higher wholesale prices to two distributors, which were also bidding, than to its own subsidiary, making it difficult for these companies to compete.
“In this way, Roche eliminated the competition in the auction because the distributors were not able to participate in these procedures under reasonable conditions so that to ensure them to carry out their activity effectively and profitably,” the Competition Council explained in a statement. The infractions occurred in 2017, when the probe first began.
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