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.
TikTok has launched an Election Center dedicated to Romania's upcoming elections as part of its broader effort to protect "the integrity of the platform" and promote access to reliable information. The initiative is supported by a new media literacy campaign and ongoing collaboration with more than 20 fact-checking partners, the company said in a statement. […]
Romanian acting president Ilie Bolojan met on Friday, April 25, with a delegation from the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, or ODIHR, of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), according to a statement from the presidential administration. The acting president told the delegation that Romania "is faithful to democratic principles […]
Shareholders of Romanian oil company OMV Petrom recently approved the distribution of record dividends amounting to RON 2.8 billion (EUR 562.6 million) for the 2024 financial year, as well as the 2025 budget, which provides for investments of RON 8.1 billion (EUR 1.6 billion). The decision was taken during the Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meetings […]
The 2025 edition of the European Film Festival (FFE), which takes place this year in Bucharest and nine other cities, will screen more than 40 feature films, 28 of which are national premieres. The festival will also present two selections of short films, also screened as national premieres. Among them are 11 documentaries, 13 films […]
Update: The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in an official press release that the Romanian citizen was initially detained in the Abkhazia region four months ago and was later transferred to Sochi, Russia. "Steps have already been taken to provide consular protection and assistance with the central and local authorities, in accordance with international regulations," […]
Russia’s Federal Security Service, FSB, said on Friday, April 25, that it arrested a 23-year-old Romanian citizen on suspicion of spying for Ukraine by sharing the locations of Russian air defense systems. The unnamed man is accused of collecting and transmitting information about air defense sites in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi to […]
