UK watchdog fines Pfizer, Flynn $84 mln for overcharging NHS

July 21 (Reuters) - Britain’s antitrust watchdog fined pharmaceutical firms Pfizer (PFE.N) and Flynn 70 million pounds ($83.61 million) on Thursday for overcharging the National Health Services (NHS) for an epilepsy drug.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in 2016 had fined Pfizer and Flynn about 90 million pounds for inflating Epanutin’s prices by as much as 2,600% to 67.50 pounds for a 100mg pack, but the companies had won an appeal in 2018 against the penalty.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal had referred the matter back to the CMA, which in August last year had stuck to its view that the two pharma firms broke the law.

The regulator added that the firms have been overcharging for more than four years.

The watchdog said that spending by Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) on the capsules, containing phenytoin sodium, jumped to about 50 million pounds in 2013 from about 2 million pounds just a year earlier. ($1 = 0.8372 pounds)