Swiss Competition Authority Fines Pharmaceutical Companies for Participation In Cartel
- 11/04/2025
- News
On 10 April 2025, the Swiss Competition Authority (COMCO) fined several pharmaceutical companies for their involvement in a cartel in relation to N-Butylbromide Scopolamine/Hyoscine (SNBB), the active ingredient of the anti-cramp medicine Buscopan® and its generic versions (see, attached press release).
The European Commission (the Commission) had made a similar finding in October 2023 (see, Van Bael & Bellis Life Sciences News and Insights of 19 October 2023). All companies involved in the cartel proceedings accepted liability and opted to settle with the Commission, except for Alchem. As a result, the Commission pursued a “hybrid” enforcement procedure and issued a Statement of Objections to Alchem in June 2024 (see, Van Bael & Bellis Life Sciences News and Insights of 13 June 2024). The Commission’s investigation was conducted in cooperation with the Australian and Swiss competition authorities.
COMCO has now found that the same seven companies engaged in anticompetitive practices between 2005 and 2019, including fixing the minimum sale price of SNBB, allocating market quotas, and exchanging commercially sensitive information. Interestingly, in the proceedings before the Swiss authority, Alchem opted to settle along with the other participants, five of which were fined by COMCO a total of CHF 600,000. C2 PHARMA received full immunity as the first leniency applicant, followed by Transo-Pharm and Linnea which were granted partial immunity. These three companies had also received full or partial immunity as leniency applicants in the proceedings before the Commission.
The cartel marked the first occasion on which the Commission penalised a cartel in the pharmaceutical sector, and it is also the first time that COMCO fines a cartel in this sector concerning an active ingredient. Alkaloids of Australia, another participant in the cartel, was given a criminal sanction by the Australian Federal Court in November 2022.
