OREANDA-NEWS. April 18, 2011. The Commission of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) found that “Eli Lilly Vostok S.A.”, in the person of the Moscow Office of “Eli Lilly Vostok S.A.”, violated Part 3 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The company coordinated economic activities of “Tsentr Vnedrenia PROTEK” CJSC and “Stolichnie Apteki” Moscow State Unitary Enterprise. The FAS Commission also found that “Tsentr Vnedrenia PROTEK” CJSC and “Stolichnie Apteki” Moscow State Unitary Enterprise violated Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The economic entities violated the law by entering into an agreement that resulted in maintaining prices for No.3 lot – antimicrobial and antiviral medicines – at an open auction for the right to conclude a state contract for providing specific medicines and medical products to medical and preventive treatment facilities in Moscow in 2008. The auction took place on 22 October 2008 and was organised by Moscow City Health Care Department.

At the same time, the FAS Commission decided to open a separate case against Moscow City Health Care Department upon the signs of violating Part 1 Article 17 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. FAS suspects that the Health Department violated the law by including in the technical documentation for the open auction for the right to conclude a state contract for providing specific medicines and medical products to medical and preventive treatment facilities in Moscow (further on referred to as the open auction) the requirement for particular medicines of particular producers. Including this requirement in the technical documentation could have restricted participation of economic entities in the open auction and resulted in preventing, restricting, eliminating competition in course of competitive bidding.

“We consider this a landmark case because to a considerable extent it exposes the role of producers of medications in the conduct of suppliers of medicines in course of competitive bidding. This role can often be abusive for the market structure and the prices on the market”, said the Head of the FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Timophei Nizhegorodtsev.

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Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” prohibits competition-restricting agreements or concerted actions of economic entities.