The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is seeking a “competition disqualification order” against a former pharmaceutical company director and chief executive over his role in the “charging of excessive and unfair prices” for an NHS thyroid drug.
The competition regulator said yesterday that it had notified John Beighton that it “intends to issue disqualification proceedings in the High Court of Justice”, following its 2021 decision that drug company Advanz Pharma inflated the price of liothyronine tablets by 1,110% over an infringement period of 2009 to 2017.
Beighton is a former director of Mercury Pharmaceuticals Limited, Advanz Pharma Services (UK) Limited and Mercury Pharma Group Limited, companies “within the Advanz undertaking responsible for the sale of liothyronine tablets”.
The CMA said Beighton led the companies as chief executive for “over half of the infringement period”.
Read more: ‘Abused dominant position’: Appeal sees liothyronine manufacturer fined £41m
C+D previously reported that the price of liothyronine increased 63 times between 2007 and 2017, with one pack costing the NHS £4.05 in 2007 before rising by over 6,000% to £258.19 by March 2016.
A Court of Appeal (CoA) judgement in May 2025 reinstated the CMA’s original fines totalling £99 million for Advanz and two former owners, HgCapital and Cinven, for their roles in the “excessive and unfair pricing” of liothyronine tablets.
Advanz was fined £40.9m, Cinven was fined £51.9m and HgCapital was fined £6.2m.
C+D has approached Advanz and Beighton for comment.
NHS overcharged
The CMA announced in 2017 that Advanz, formerly Concordia, had charged the NHS more than £34m for liothyronine tablets in 2016 – up from the “around £600,000″ spent on them in 2006.
It later said the price increases were “not driven by any meaningful innovation or investment, volumes remained broadly stable and the cost of producing the tablets did not increase significantly”.
The regulator today told C+D that it “always considers whether to apply to disqualify directors when competition law has been breached”.
Read more: CMA issues over £100m in fines after 1,110% thyroid drug price hike
“We pursue disqualification when we believe a director’s conduct has made them unfit to be concerned in the management of a company, taking into account the CMA’s prioritisation principles and the aims of the disqualification regime,” it added.
“It will now be for the High Court to determine whether it is appropriate to make a disqualification order against Mr Beighton.”
And Beighton told C+D that “he has every confidence in his defence of any application by the CMA”.
Read more: Manufacturer charged £258 for pack of liothyronine, watchdog reveals
It comes as the CoA this week upheld findings that Auden Mckenzie and Actavis UK “abused a dominant position” and made “anti-competitive agreements” with competitors between 2008 and 2018 over the sale of hydrocortisone tablets.
The court ruled that the CMA and the Competition Appeal Tribunal were right to find that the companies charged “excessive and unfair prices” for a “lifesaving” medicine over a decade.
