Advanz, Morningside Accused of Antitrust Breaches in Probe

(Bloomberg) -- Advanz Pharma Corp. and English drugmaker Morningside Pharmaceuticals Ltd. received statements of objections from U.K. regulators who found that a deal with wholesaler Alliance Healthcare over sales of the antibiotic Nitrofurantoin may have violated antitrust rules.

The sellers had an arrangement covering the treatment for urinary tract infections from 2014 until at least October 2017, the Competition and Markets Authority said Thursday in a statement. Alliance Healthcare would buy equal volumes of the drug from each of the suppliers so that they wouldn’t compete, the regulator said.

“We’ve provisionally found that suppliers of this important antibiotic entered into arrangements with the aim of keeping Nitrofurantoin prices artificially high, meaning the” U.K.’s National Health Service “wouldn’t benefit from the lower prices that come from effective competition,” Ann Pope, the CMA’s senior director of antitrust, said in the statement.

Advanz said the CMA’s s charges pre-date the company’s ownership of the drug, which it acquired from Cinven Ltd. and “certain other sellers as a result of a transaction to purchase Amdipharm Mercury Ltd.” Advanz said Cinven is also named in the statement of objections.

“We take competition law very seriously and do not believe that competition law has been infringed,” Advanz said in the statement, which said it would review the CMA’s allegations. “We plan to respond in detail as we continue to work constructively with the CMA.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Bodoni in Luxembourg at sbodoni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net, Christopher Elser

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