Competition & Markets Authority ("CMA") concluded its investigation into suspected abuse of dominant position by Vifor Pharma ("Vifor") in the supply of intravenous iron for UK National Health Service ("NHS") patients by accepting the undertaking's commitments.
The CMA found that Vifor had a dominant position in the market for the supply of high-dose intravenous iron for the period 2010-2024 and had raised serious competition concerns that Vifor had abused its dominant position to disseminate misleading information about the safety and efficacy of its competitor Pharmacosmos' Monofer product in order to create perceptions in favor of its own product Ferinject. In this context, it was stated that Vifor had an unfair advantage over its competitor in its commercial communications to healthcare professionals and that this created a cost burden on the NHS.
In order to address these concerns, Vifor made the following commitments:
- A voluntary (ex gratia) payment of £23 million will be made to compensate for the financial impact on the NHS.
- A multi-channel information campaign will be launched to healthcare professionals to address negative perceptions of Monofer.
- Vifor will undertake a strict compliance process for its promotional activities to prevent misleading statements to healthcare professionals about Monofer's safety and efficacy profile in the future.
The CMA found the commitments made by Vifor to be sufficient and decided to discontinue the investigation.
(CMA – 23.05.2025)
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