Wednesday October 10, 07:50 PM
Aspirin maker Bayer denies alleged price fixing
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FRANKFURT (AFP) - Bayer (Xetra: 575200 - news) , the German chemicals group that makes Aspirin, on Wednesday denied allegations to appear in a press report that it had fixed a price for the product with thousands of German pharmacists.
"We obviously have recommended prices that are not binding, but in no case do we have price agreements that violate the law," a Bayer spokesman told AFP.
According to a report due for release Thursday in the magazine Stern, Bayer is suspected of granting rebates to 11,000 German pharmacists in exchange for their maintaining an elevated price for the widely-used pain reliever.
Stern is to quote in particular an e-mail from a manager at Bayer-Vital, the group's medications division, dated December 30, 2006.
Sent to a salesman, the Bayer manager allegedly reminds him that rebates of up to 3.0 percent would be approved "only if the rules of the game are respected."
The Bayer spokesman said his group had immediately contacted the Federal Cartel Office "to ask for its help in clearing up" the allegations.
The office told AFP only that it was "investigating" the matter.
Bayer has been the target of price fixing probes in the past. Last year it avoided a record European Commission fine of five synthetic rubber producers because it denounced the scheme.
In the pharmaceutical sector, Bayer was found guilty by Portuguese authorities in 2005 of fixing prices on medication supplied to 22 hospitals in the country.
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