Aventa rejects pharmaceutical 'cartel' claims: Facts are opposite of the noise

GROUP CEO of Aventa James Walker is denying claims of the company having a monopoly on the pharmaceutical industry.

The claim was made by then-opposition senator and now senate president Wade Mark, who said a certain company had a 30 per cent stake in the sector and was abusing its power. He raised the matter on the adjournment of the Senate on January 21.

However, according to the Fair Trading Act, an enterprise is only considered to have monopoly power if it controls at least 40 per cent of a particular market.

Walker said publicly available data shows Aventa gaining 34 per cent of the tender award for public supply for the tender period 2023-2025. However, fluctuations in the market tend to affect market share, especially in cases where the government may require additional input from other suppliers.

He said the company's stake in the supply of private entities like pharmacies is even less.

“We have asked our customers how much of what they buy like the medication, over-the-counter drugs and vitamins, comes from us. And for the ones that we asked, they're buying less than that 34 per cent.

“So if those pharmacy chains are doing that, why wouldn't anyone else not be able to have a similar, diverse supplier base.

“Our assertion would be that we are part of the market like many other options out there and our customers know that too.”

Further concerns were raised by Minister in the Ministry of Health Dr Rishad Seecheran on pharmaceutical pricing practices under the PNM administration.

He said the ministry had chosen to create “behemoths” in the industry neglecting to use strategic international partnerships to reduce drug prices in TT.

“In the last ten years, the ministry of health, through CDAP (Chronic Disease Assistance Programme) has spent around $4.4 billion and has basically, in my opinion, created a pharmaceutical cartel in TT,” he said during the fourth sitting of the House of Representatives on June 23.

He said drug prices had increased “at the will and fancy of these companies“ amid constant supply shortages from a limited number of suppliers.

He said, under the Freedom of Information Act it was found that between 2015 and 2024, 16 companies were identified as having significant profit margins with Aventa acquiring $1.8 billion.

But Walker said the markup applied to pharmaceuticals has remained relatively low over the years.

“If you look at our gross profit since 2017 it's been within a two percentage point range. In fact over the last five years the gross profit of the business has actually gone down slightly.”

He said the prevalence of cheaper, more generic drugs on the market has created more competition.

“The price increases that I get for a product, I'm passing it on, yes. And that's the nature of business but the markup that Aventa applies has been relatively flat for years and has gone down, so the facts are the opposite of the noise.”