Phenytoin Sodium

Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Flynn Pharma have been accused of charging excessive prices in the UK for phenytoin sodium capsules, an anti-epilepsy drug, according to a provisional view by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). In June 2018 the CMA’s findings of abuse had been set aside by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) remitting the case back to the CMA for reconsideration. The CMA then appealed seeking to reinstate the fines imposed on Pfizer and Flynn Pharma in 2016. On 10 March 2020 the UK Court of Appeal dismissed three of the CMA’s four grounds of appeal, and refused to reinstate the fines. It upheld the CAT’s judgment, including the order made by the CAT for remittal.

A CRA team including Raphaël De Coninck, Mikaël Hervé and Elina Koustoumpardi has been advising Flynn Pharma on the CMA’s excessive pricing investigation and subsequent appeals. The CRA team provided an economic assessment of Flynn Pharma’s market power and an extensive cost and comparator analysis involving a range of products/markets used as benchmarks to assess the excessiveness of phenytoin sodium capsule price levels.