Rolling live coverage of business, economics and financial markets ahead of Bank of England interest rate decision
Shares in Frasers Group have dropped by 3.3% in the opening trades on Thursday, as investors digest its results plus the news that Mike Ashley will hand over day-to-day control of the company to his prospective son-in-law.
The response of stock markets to Ashley’s decision over the next few weeks will be interesting. There are not many examples of a 31-year-old being handed the reins of a FTSE 250 company (in fact, comments are welcome below if you can think of any at all).
US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and British distributor Flynn overcharged the National Health Service for vital anti-epilepsy drugs by as much as 2,600% overnight, the UK’s competition regulator has found after re-examining a 2016 decision.
Following the overnight price increases by the companies, NHS spending on phenytoin sodium capsules rose from around £2m a year in 2012 to about £50m in 2013. For over four years, Pfizer’s prices were between 780% and 1,600% higher than it had previously charged. Pfizer then supplied the drug to Flynn, which sold it to wholesalers and pharmacies at prices between 2,300% and 2,600% higher than those they had paid previously.
Thousands of patients depend on this drug to prevent life-threatening seizures as a result of their epilepsy. As the CAT recognised, this is a matter that is important for government, for the public as patients and taxpayers, and for the pharmaceutical industry itself. Protecting these patients, the NHS and the taxpayers who fund it, is our priority.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3Chk5ZU
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