Britain fines drug companies for increasing the price of a stimulant drug by 10,000 percent

Britain's competition regulator has imposed record fines on more than 10 pharmaceutical companies, totaling 260 million pounds ($360 million) for raising the price of a can of a stimulant drug supplied to the country's National Health Service from 70 pence to 88 pounds during Less than eight years old.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority said today that these violations mean that the authority paid an increase of more than 10,000 percent for single packages of 10 milligrams and 20 milligrams of "Hydrocortisone" tablets in 2016 over what it was paying in 2008.

Hydrocortisone is used to treat conditions in which the adrenal glands do not produce enough hormones, including life-threatening Addison's disease.

The Competition and Markets Authority added that companies including Actavis and its former parent company Allergan, which is now owned by AbbVie, violated competition rules.

The authority clarified that the companies had engaged in practices including buying potential competitors to keep their alternatives from the market and increasing the price of "hydrocortisone" as it is the only one that supplies it to the authority and has continued to distance competitors over the years.

"These are without a doubt some of the most serious violations we have uncovered in recent years, and our fine is a warning to any other drug company intending to exploit the NHS," said FDA president Andrea Coselli.

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