The Competition Council has fined pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim RCV Gmbh & Co KG (Austria) with 128.470 million RON (25.81 million euros) for abuse of a dominant position on the Romanian market of medicines intended for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a press release.The competition authority found that, over 2017-2021, Boehringer Ingelheim RCV Gmbh & Co KG limited market access to the generic medicine Spiriva (cheaper) and directed patients to Spiolto Respimat, an innovative, more complex and more expensive medicine.According to the Therapeutic Guide in force at that time and the national protocol, not all patients affected by COPD have a more complex medicine as their first treatment option (dual therapy), some of them having the medicine Spiriva and implicitly its generic versions (monotherapy) as their initial indication.Boehringer Ingelheim RCV Gmbh & Co KG has carried out an intensive communication and promotion strategy to influence doctors' decisions so that they will prescribe the drug Spiolto Respimat more widely.In this way, the company intended to make it more difficult to sell competing generic drugs similar to Spiriva and to direct the revenues generated by this product to the new drug Spiolto Respimat.Both drugs are reimbursed 50% by the Health Insurance House, the difference being paid by patients.The clues that were the basis for triggering the investigation also included information received on the Competition Whistleblower Platform, a tool through which violations of the Competition Law can be brought to the attention of the authority, anonymously. The platform can be accessed at https://report.whistleb.com/ro/consiliulconcurentei.
Graffiti Plus (GRF+), active in Romania's communication consulting market, has signed the contract for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) funding for its listing on the AeRO market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB). GRF+ is also preparing to launch the private financing round it is conducting as a first step toward its debut […]
The wooden church from the village of Oncești, one of the oldest monuments in the heritage of the Maramureș Village Museum “Mihai Dăncuș” in Sighetu Marmației, has been restored. The church has now returned to the tourist circuit through the support provided by the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, in a project coordinated by […]
The Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) announced the establishment of its Corporate Governance Committee on Thursday, December 4, to support the implementation of the revised 2025 BVB Corporate Governance Code. Romania’s capital market recently celebrated 30 years of activity and is undergoing significant corporate governance reform. The revised BVB Corporate...
Daniel Băluţă, the mayor of Bucharest's District 4, signed the order to start work on the extension of the M4 subway line on Thursday, December 4. The investment is valued at EUR 3.5 billion and the route will be 11 kilometers long, between Gara de Nord and Gara Progresul railway stations. The extension will have 14 […]
Ten entrepreneurs and executives have launched Food Angels Hub, a community of investors dedicated to the food sector. The aim of the hub is to “develop and scale functional and profitable companies in the food, hospitality and food-tech sectors” and “turn Romania into a reference point for food innovation in the CEE region.” The founders […]
Romanian developer IULIUS announced that it secured a syndicated loan facility amounting to over EUR 305 million for its Palas Iași mixed-use complex. The financing is provided by a consortium made up of Erste Group Bank Austria, BCR, Raiffeisen Bank Romania, and Raiffeisen Bank International Austria. The loan will support the remodelling of Palas Iași […]
