Chile: Commission suspects laboratory collusion

Socialist Party deputy Juan Luis Castro has revealed his growing suspicions regarding possible price-fixing between several laboratories across the country, representing much of Chile’s pharmaceutical industry. The congressman has pointed to a 42% increase in the prices of 16 of the country’s 20 most-used medications, all during a short period between 2015 and 2016.

Castro, who is a member of the Health Commission, believes that “this increase in the price of 20 of Chile’s most consumed medications is a low blow to the middle class and all popular sectors, since it implies increases in common remedies such as paracetamol, ibuprofen, loratadine, salbutamol and many other daily-use substances.”

Castro announced his intentions to “take these findings to the Public Health Institute and the National Economic Prosecutor, because there probably are signs of collusion, agreements to raise prices in their products, as has already been seen with drugstores and which may now be occurring between laboratories.”

Full Content: Terra

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