Canada: Competition Bureau completes investigation of Janssen

The Competition Bureau announced Wednesday, February 20, that it closed an investigation into allegations of abuse of dominance by Janssen, a Canadian pharmaceutical company owned by Johnson & Johnson.

The Bureau’s investigation considered whether Janssen was engaging in conduct that shielded its biologic drug, Remicade, from competition from biosimilar drugs, like Inflectra and Renflexis. This included allegations of predatory pricing, as well as other conduct that could exclude or disadvantage biosimilar competitors.

After a careful review of the facts, the Bureau concluded that there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that Janssen’s conduct substantially lessened or prevented competition in a relevant market. Therefore, the Bureau was unable to conclude that the Competition Act has been contravened.

Matthew Boswell, Interim Commissioner of Competition, stated, “Biosimilars are vital to competition in the pharmaceutical industry. They offer Canadians the benefit of lower priced drugs where treatments can cost upwards of thousands of dollars each year. The Bureau takes all allegations of harm to competition seriously, and we are vigilantly monitoring the conduct of companies in the pharmaceutical industry.”