(Yicai Global) April 16 -- China’s market regulator has fined three producers of active pharmaceuticals a combined CNY325.5 million (USD46 million) for monopolizing the market for calcium gluconate.

The State Administration for Market Regulation of China fined Shandong Kanghui Medicine CNY253 million, Weifang Puyunhui Pharmaceutical CNY54.4 million and Weifang Apollo Pharmaceutical CNY18.5 million, the 21st Century Business Herald reported today. The penalty was the largest for an API monopoly since the SAMR was established in 2018.

The three companies, which are closely related, controlled sales of the supplement used to raise blood calcium levels through underwriting, bulk purchasing and preventing manufacturers from making sales to other buyers between August 2015 and December 2017, the watchdog said. At the height of their monopoly in 2015, they had a market share of 94 percent.

The trio sold calcium gluconate at between CNY760 (USD107) and CNY2,184 a kilogram in 2017, between 9.5 and 27.3 times its cost. Their actions inflated the price of the API as much as 54.6 times over from 2014 to 2017, the report said.

Kanghui Medicine’s Deputy General Manager Lu Guohua and Zhang Kun, a department manager, acquired Puyunhui Pharmaceutical in June 2015 when it was named Weifang Hengchang Pharmaceutical. Puyunhui has controlled Kanghui since that transaction, with employees working between each company, and Kanghui controls Apollo Pharmaceutical’s business operations concerning calcium gluconate.

Editor: James Boynton