TDLC imposes maximum fine on laboratories for forming a cartel and assigning Cenabast offers



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A new case of collusion shook the Chilean economy and a particularly sensitive market: remedies. The National Economic Prosecutor's Office announced today that the Tribunal for the Defense of Free Competition (TDLC) has accepted the obligation of collusion against Biosano Laboratories, Fresenius Kabi Chile and its subsidiary. Sanderson.

The reason? Form and maintain a cartel designed to influence the calls for tenders launched by the National Health System Supply Center (Cenabast) to purchase ampoules of drugs.

The FNE stated that Sanderson was liable to a fine of up to 30 thousand fiscal annual units (equivalent to US $ 25.6 million), while Fresenius Kabi Chile was liable to pay a fine of US $ 25.6 million. a fine of 2,463 AWU, or 2.1 million US dollars.

Biosano Laboratory Fined Off for Accepting

Program In addition to the above, the TDLC required Sanderson and Fresenius to adopt a compliance program over five years in terms of free competition in accordance with the "Compliance Programs Guide to the Regulation of Free Competition", prepared by the FNE.

In its decision, the TDLC noted that "the evidence cited above demonstrates that the Required (c) Tender Procedures Called by Cenabast for the Supply of Injectables of Lower Volume, from least 1999 to February 2013. "

And among the relevant factors in determining the fine, the Court found that" with respect to the deterrent effect, this circumstance is closely related to the gravity of the imputed conduct In fact, it is a collusive agreement concluded for at least 14 years on products of vital importance to the public health system. "

" It is unacceptable that companies are heard and it is It is even more reprehensible to do so by affecting government procurement, especially in the case of drugs, as in this case.We hope that a judgment as clear as the one the Court dictated will help situations like this one to disappear from our markets, "said National Economic Prosecutor Mario Ybar.

The Case [19659002] The FNE investigation began in 2012 as a result of complaints from the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic and the Ministry of Health. The evidence of the case was obtained during the procedures of entry, search and seizure, as well as interception and recording of communications.

The action brought before the TDLC on August 3, 2016 is also based on evidence provided by Biosano. in the context of the compensation process to which it has been granted.

According to the FNE's charge, before bidding on Cenabast's submissions, the labs defined which of them should be given the medicines they could have competed with. The agreement worked by agreeing a reference price for its offers and determining who would submit the winning proposal.

The FNE told the court that the cartel had been extended from 1999 to the first half of 2013, during which time Cenabast had required more than a thousand times the drugs included in the collusion.

This is the sixth time that the prosecution makes public and deals in the TDLC a case that incorporates the compensation mechanism, in force in Chile since 2009.

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