Big Pharma's Johnson & Johnson under investigation in South Africa over 'excessive' drug prices

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — U.S.-based pharmaceuticals company Johnson & Johnson is being investigated in South Africa for allegedly charging “excessive” prices for a key tuberculosis drug, the country's antitrust regulator said Friday.

J&J's Belgium-based subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals is also under investigation, South Africa's Competition Commission said.

The commission, which regulates business practices, said it opened the investigation this week based on information that the companies “may have engaged in exclusionary practices and excessive pricing” of the tuberculosis drug bedaquiline, which is sold under the brand name Sirturo.

The Competition Commission declined to give further details of its investigation, but health advocacy groups in South Africa say the country is being charged more than twice as much for bedaquiline than other middle- and low-income countries.