Competition Commission to probe J&J for pricing of TB drug

The probe follows allegations that it is charging South Africa more than double the price for the Tuberculosis drug bedaquiline compared to the rest of the world.

This was announced by Fatima Hassan, a Human rights lawyer and founder of the Health Justice Initiative (HJI) during a media briefing on Thursday.

The briefing was hosted by Doctors Without Borders, Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP),Health Justice Initiative (HJI) and other health advocacy groups to shine the spotlight on the issues relating to the pricing of  bedaquiline, a crucial medicine for treating drug-resistant TB.

Hassan told the media that part of the investigation includes whether the country's competition law was violated by Johnson and Johnson's exclusion of patents.

"The investigation is unprecedented. It will also be investigated for what the Competition Commission believes is a violation of the Competition Act in relation to what called exclusionary conduct, and that relates to the evergreening patenting practice TB drug bedaquiline.

“As far as we are aware, this is the first time a pharmaceutical company's ‘evergreening conduct’ will be investigated by the competition authorities in South Africa, and kudos to the Competition Commission for initiating this.

“We believe that Johnson and Johnson has been informed last night that they are now under investigation. We will work together with other TB campaigners around the world to provide information to the competition authorities so that the investigation can be thorough, to ensure that patients and people in South Africa are no longer subjected to the exploitative pricing conduct of Johnson and Johnson," said Hassan.

The Competition Commission investigation comes just a month after the High Court in Pretoria ordered the government to provide access to its Covid-19 vaccine procurement contracts.

Hassan said the contracts the government signed with pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic were one-sided and unethical.

"It is a company that has not acted in the true spirit of transparency and accountability. The contract shows a really one-sided approach to negotiating for supply, the fact that this investigation follows after the latest judgment on the Covid-19 contract is really significant.

"The reasonable suspicion is that Johnson and Johnson has violated Section 8 of the Competition Act relating to excessive pricing," she said.

Meanwhile, the Health Department’s professor Norbet Ndjeka said the government is negotiating for price reductions before signing new contracts.

"We have negotiated a price reduction, and we are willing to negotiate again, we have not been spending more than the rest of the world but with the new contracts it is true that we will be spending more than the rest of the world from the 1 st of October on the new contracts that they are offering.

“We have spoken to the Competition Commission, they are investigating this. My request to Johnson and Johnson has been that we need to continue to enjoy a reasonable price than the rest of the world because we are the ones who put this drug on the map," said Ndjeka.

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