The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has closed an investigation into alleged anticompetitive generic drug pricing after concluding that the case was not a good use of its resources.

The CMA said the investigation had been looking into “suspected breaches of competition law” relating to a range of drugs, but no details were ever released on which companies or organisations were under investigation.

The investigation was launched in October 2017 at the height of the shortages in generic medicines that hit community pharmacy. The CMA said that the investigation related “to alleged anticompetitive agreements and/or concerted practices in relation to generic pharmaceutical products”.

In a summary of its decision to close the investigation on November the CMA said that although this case was now closed, two of the alleged anticompetitive agreements “in relation to generic pharmaceutical products” were being investigated further as two new cases.

The new case pages for these investigations are case 50511-1 and Case 50511-2. The CMA says a decision whether issue a ‘statement of objections’ for these alleged anticompetitive agreements will be made in the first quarter of 2019.