On Friday 4 July, the European Commission decided to impose a fine of €489,000 on Alchem International Pvt. Ltd. and its subsidiary Alchem International (H.K.) Limited for breaching EU rules on anticompetitive practices.
For more than 12 years, Alchem, an Indian company, was involved in an agreement concerning an important pharmaceutical ingredient.
In October 2023, the Commission adopted a settlement decision and imposed fines totalling €13.4 million on six companies for their participation in the same cartel (see EUROPE 13275/29).
Unlike the other participants, Alchem decided not to settle the case. Consequently, and in accordance with normal practice, the investigation against Alchem continued under the standard antitrust procedure. The Commission sent the company a statement of objections in June 2024.
Alchem manufactures the pharmaceutical ingredient scopolamine/hyoscine n-butylbromide (SNBB), an important input material in the abdominal antispasmodic drug Buscopan and its generic versions.
The investigation revealed that Alchem coordinated and agreed with the cartel’s other participants to fix SNBB’s minimum selling price to customers (distributors and generic drug manufacturers) and to allocate quotas. In addition, Alchem exchanged commercially sensitive information with the other participants.
Alchem participated in a single and continuous infringement in the European Economic Area from 1 November 2005 to 12 February 2018.
This is the first cartel the Commission has sanctioned in the pharmaceutical sector and in relation to an active pharmaceutical ingredient. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)