The Court of Appeal has upheld the Competition and Markets Authority's findings that companies broke the law by charging excessive and unfair prices for hydrocortisone tablets, a lifesaving medicine funded by the NHS. The ruling supports the regulator's long-running case over the pricing of the drug in the UK.
According to the case summary, the price of hydrocortisone tablets climbed from under £1 a pack to more than £70 over roughly a decade. That sharp increase drove NHS annual spending on the medicine from about £500,000 to more than £80 million.
The decision is significant because it confirms the CMA's view that the companies' conduct went beyond ordinary commercial pricing and crossed into unlawful overcharging. In effect, the court has backed the regulator's assessment that the prices imposed on the NHS were not only high, but unfair under competition law.
The judgment strengthens the CMA's position in one of the UK's most prominent pharmaceutical pricing cases. It also underlines the legal risks for businesses found to have exploited a market position in ways that place a heavy financial burden on public healthcare systems.
