Secretary of State for Health & Ors v Servier Laboratories Ltd & Ors
2014
CHANCERY DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
- MR JUSTICE HENDERSON
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Competition Law
- Tort Law
2014
CHANCERY DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The UK health authorities filed claims against Servier for alleged anti-competitive behaviors that impeded the entry of generic versions of Perindopril. After the EU Commission ruled against Servier, the company sought to stay the Scottish/NI proceedings. The court dismissed the stay application, emphasizing the need for parallel case management but accepted Servier’s proposal to limit disclosure initially to documents already provided to the Commission.
Judgment
Mr Justice Henderson :
Introduction
On 9 and 10 June 2014 I heard a case management conference in three related actions in the Chancery Division, in which United Kingdom health authorities claim damages for alleged breaches of competition law contrary to Articles 101 and 102 TFEU against four companies in the Servier group (to which I will refer collectively as “Servier”). Servier manufactured a proprietary drug, Perindopril, which was widely used in the treatment of heart disease. The general nature of the claims is that Servier engaged in various forms of anti-competitive conduct, mainly between 2003 and 2007, which unlawfully impeded the development and marketing of generic versions of the drug after the expiry of Servier’s main patents. The total value of the claims is of the order of £260m.
In the first action (“the English proceedings”), begun by a claim form issued on 3 May 2011, the principal claimant is the Secretary of State for Health. Numerous other bodies concerned with the purchase and supply of drugs in the National Health Service (“NHS”) in England were also joined as claimants, including all the English Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts. In 2013 the NHS in England was reorganised, the Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts were abolished, and their rights of action were transferred to the Secretary of State. It is therefore agreed that the English proceedings now need to be re-amended so as to remove those bodies as parties, leaving as claimants only the Secretary of State and the NHS Business Services Authority.
In the second action (“the Scottish/NI proceedings”), begun by a claim form issued on 18 July 2012, the claimants are the Scottish Ministers, the 14 regional Scottish Health Boards, the Department of Health for Northern Ireland, and the Regional Health and Social Care Board of Northern Ireland. The public health authorities of Scotland and Northern Ireland are, of course, independent of each other, and the Scottish NHS is itself separate from the English NHS, the delivery of health services being a devolved function in each region of the UK. Despite these structural differences, however, the Scottish and Northern Irish authorities have been able to make common cause, and have joined in bringing a single set of proceedings.
In the third action (“the Welsh proceedings”), begun by a claim form issued on 10 September 2012, the claimants are the Welsh Ministers and the seven Welsh Local H