Romanian competition authority to bolster monitoring of drug prices

2010-02-09

The Romanian Competition Council has decided to increase price monitoring on the Romanian pharmaceutical market to prevent anti-competitive practices which might prevent or delay the appearance of generic drugs on the market, according to Bogdan Chiritoiu, the chairman of the Council.
The reason for this decision is a complaint from a Romanian generics manufacturer about possible anti-competitive practices on the part of a manufacturer of original drugs pertaining to price, which could have impeded the market entry of the generic equivalent of the original drug.
No investigation has been launched as a result of this complaint but the Council is treating this case as an indication of a possible breach of competition law. The Council will cooperate with the Romanian National Agency for Medicines with regard to information exchange and the interpretation of market data. IMS Health data suggest that in 2009 the Romanian generic medicine market grew by 7.8% year on year in lei to RON 395.6m, but declined by 6.3% to €93.3m in euro.