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South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) fined AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:AZN) and Alvogen 2.6B Korean won (~$1.82M) for alleged stalling of generic to British pharma giant’s cancer drug Zoladex to release in Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported on Thursday.
Alvogen suspended its plan to release a generic version of breast/prostate cancer drug Zoladex, initially developed by AstraZeneca, in exchange for gaining exclusive rights to sell three types of products made by AstraZeneca in Korea, the report added.
“The deal has not only cut off the possibility of lower drug costs, but it also hindered innovation in the pharmaceutical market by reducing incentives for research and development,” the FTC said in a statement, according to Yonhap’s report.
As per FTC’s preliminary decision, AstraZeneca was fined 1.1B won (~$770K) while Alvogen was fined 1.5B-won (~$1M).
Alvogen had been developing a generic version of Zoladex since 2014 and was approached by AstraZeneca, the FTC said. The two companies made a deal in September 2016 and while the agreement was supposed to run till 2020, the two suspended the deal in January 2018, the report added citing the FTC.
Alvogen has not yet released Zoladex’s generic, the report noted.