The CMA has secured the disqualification of
pharmaceutical company director Amit Patel after he admitted his
role in arrangements that broke competition law.
Amit Patel has signed undertakings that ban him from holding a
director role at any UK company for the next 5 years, in
connection with his involvement in illegal arrangements during
his time at Auden McKenzie (Pharma Division) Ltd and Amilco Ltd.
Auden McKenzie
From September 2014 to May 2015, Mr Patel was a director at the
pharmaceutical company Auden McKenzie. A Competition and Markets
Authority (CMA) investigation into agreements
affecting the supply of
nortriptyline, an NHS prescribed drug used by thousands of
patients to relieve the symptoms of depression, found that Auden
McKenzie and King Pharmaceuticals Ltd had shared out between them
the supply of the drug to a large pharmaceutical wholesaler. The
2 companies agreed that King would supply only 25mg tablets and
Auden Mckenzie only 10mg tablets. They also agreed to fix
quantities and prices to the wholesaler.
The object of this agreement was to limit competition, meaning
the NHS – and ultimately the taxpayer – could have been paying
higher prices than if competition hadn’t been restricted by the
agreement.
Amilco
Mr Patel is currently the sole director at Amilco and has held
this directorship since 2013. Mr Patel admitted that, from 1
March 2016 to 19 Oct 2016, Amilco and another
pharmaceutical company, Tiofarma, stayed out of the UK
fludrocortisone market enabling the market-leader Aspen
to maintain its position as the sole supplier for the UK.
Fludrocortisone is a prescription-only medicine that patients
rely on to treat primary or secondary adrenal insufficiency,
commonly known as Addison’s Disease, and the CMA has alleged that
this illegal agreement protected Aspen’s monopoly, giving it an
opportunity to increase prices charged to the NHS by up to 1800%.
Mr Patel has now admitted that, in exchange for staying out of
the market, Amilco received a 30% share of the increased prices
that Aspen was able to charge.
Amit Patel will now be disqualified from taking up any director
role or being involved in the management of any company based in
England, Scotland or Wales for 5 years.
Consistent with his admission, Mr Patel has also withdrawn his
appeal against the CMA’s nortriptyline decision.
Michael Grenfell, the CMA’s Executive Director of Enforcement,
said:
Company directors have a responsibility to make sure their
companies comply with competition law. And the CMA is
determined to protect the public from directors who fail to do
so.
Today’s action should act as a warning to those in management
positions – the CMA will not stand by when your firms break the
law and take advantage of customers.
The disqualification announced today brings the total number of
disqualifications secured by the CMA to 16, after it began
actively using its power in December 2016. As part of the Company
Directors Disqualification Act, the CMA can seek the
disqualification of any director where their company has broken
competition law. It is one of a number of tools the CMA can use
to protect consumers from anti-competitive behaviour.
Notes to editors
-
Amit Patel has received 2 director disqualifications – 1 in
relation to his time at Auden McKenzie and 1 for his time at
Amilco. These will be served concurrently.
-
The disqualification covers both Auden McKenzie (Pharma
Division) Ltd and Auden McKenzie Holdings Ltd.
-
Under the Company Directors Disqualification Act, the CMA has
the power to apply to the court to disqualify a director from
holding company directorships or performing certain roles in
relation to a company for a specified period, if a company
which he or she is a director of has breached competition
law. The Act also allows the CMA to accept a disqualification
undertaking from a director instead of bringing proceedings,
which has the same legal effect as a disqualification order.
A disqualification can also come before a company is found to
have broken competition law.
-
References in this press release to fludrocortisone acetate
tablets and to fludrocortisone are to fludrocortisone acetate
0.1mg tablets.
-
The disqualification undertakings each relate to serious
breaches of competition law. In the CMA’s view, those
breaches would have merited a disqualification of at least 6
years. The CMA has agreed to reduce this to 5 years, given
the public interest benefit of securing an immediate
disqualification, without the time and cost of court
proceedings.
-
On 3 June 2020, the Competition Appeal Tribunal gave Mr Patel
permission to withdraw his appeal against the CMA’s decision
relating to agreements affecting the supply of nortriptyline.
