Advanz’s price fraud fines are a rare story that is becoming commonplace | Philip Inman

Fine by Competition and Market Authority (CMA) Unfair pricing of private medical companies is a rare story and will become more and more common.

This week’s example is a fine of 100 million pounds Distributed to the pharmaceutical company AdvanzIt is accused of driving up prices because the GP cost of liothyronine tablets used to treat thyroid hormone deficiency has increased by 6,000% in 10 years, which is an unreasonable and deliberate policy to increase profits. Public wallet.

CMA two weeks ago fine In the past 10 years, pharmaceutical companies have charged the NHS over 260 million pounds of hydrocortisone tablets, which thousands of people rely on to treat adrenal insufficiency.

The manufacturers of the drug, Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK (now known as Accord-UK) took advantage of their position as the sole supplier of hydrocortisone, Drive up drug prices, CMA said.

In the next few months, CMA officials are dealing with a series of similar cases, including a case in which they accused several health companies of cooperating to raise the price of anti-nausea drugs.

CMA Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli stated that the latest £100 million fine and the next batch of cases will send “a clear message that violations of the law will have serious consequences.”

If the story of the United States for more than 30 years is valid, his information will be ignored by a private sector that has been accused of Price fraud and corruption, Sometimes the scale is huge.

Why American experience Is considered a warning?We just need to look Health and Care Act Submitted to parliament earlier this month.

Much of the debate on the bill has focused on reforms that overturned the 2012 legislation, which prevented different parts of the health service from cooperating, as well as a separate clause that allowed the Minister of Health to intervene in the practices of hospitals and general practitioners.

Cooperation is good, and interference is bad. This is Nuffield Trust’s response. healthy Foundation think tank.

Campaign groups that want to exclude corruption in the private sector National Health Service Focus on the aspects of the bill that allow more dependence on external supplies, which currently account for 10% of the NHS budget.

Most mental health services are already provided privately to the NHS. More and more health trusts want to package all aspects of care, such as cancer services or the growing demand for hospice care.

Under the old system, several attempts at this extensive privatization plan ended in failure. Not subject to EU procurement rules, some people at the top of the health service hope that the new legislation will restore these plans, thereby attracting major American companies and suppliers headquartered in France and Germany. These countries want to benefit from our health system because they have Our water and energy services.

This is a difficult situation to monitor.King Fund Health Think Tank Said earlier this year That central agency Do not hold detailed information Personal contracts with service providers and annual trust reports are so opaque that they “need judgment and interpretation.”

The Nuffield Trust researchers say The new bill hardly encourages privatizationThey argued that the coordination aspect of the bill excludes most of the internal market created in 2012, and that “the local health agency sitting on the comprehensive care committee actually heralds a decline in NHS competitiveness and a low degree of marketization”.

However, when the new bill was discussed in February, the US health insurance group Centene Corporation triggered a call for a formal investigation into the “privatization of medical institutions.” National Health Service After the GP practice merges, through invisibility” Making it the largest group in the UK, Let it be responsible for 500,000 patients.

The ministers claimed that it is not in their interest to pay higher prices, and that medical services are free when used and are borne by taxpayers. However, the number of CMA cases and the possible increase in private supply under the new bill show that the fight against price fraud will only become more intense.