ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2021) Turkey's anti-trust authority on Friday fined pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Roche for pushing a more expensive medicine for the treatment of eyesight issues.
"We have finished the investigation on the violations of Article 4054 of the honest competition law by companies Novartis and Roche, which, out of the two drugs, Altuzan and Lucentis, promote a more expensive Lucentis. It was decided to impose an administrative fine on both companies," the Turkish Competition Authority said in a statement.
Novartis has reportedly been asked to pay about $22.3 million as fine, while Roche - $15.3 million.
Founded in 1996 in the Swiss city of Basel, Novartis International AG has the second-largest share of the European pharmaceutical market and operates in 140 countries across the world.
Roche, another Swiss company, was founded in 1896, and is making antibiotics as well as antitumor and antimalaria medicine.
