On Monday 22 July, the European Commission announced that it had accepted commitments offered by the pharmaceutical company Vifor to address possible anti-competitive behaviour.
The Commission opened an investigation on 20 June 2022, fearing that Vifor had abused its dominant position for several years in several national markets for the supply of intravenous iron-based medicines (see EUROPE 12975/18) by conducting a misleading communication campaign, which may have hampered the development of its closest and potentially only competitor in the European Economic Area (EEA), Pharmacosmos, which produces the medicine Monofer. The aim was to give Ferinject, the drug developed by Vifor, an advantage in the same market.
Vifor proposed certain commitments (see EUROPE 13395/7), which were revised following the stakeholder consultation carried out by the European Commission.
The Vifor group has now undertaken, in particular, to launch a wide-ranging communication campaign aimed at rectifying and undoing the effects of the potentially misleading messages, and not to engage in external promotional and medical communications that is not based on Monofer labelling or clinical trials. (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)