An importer of insulin will pay damages of 70,000 lei to the state because it acted based on a cartel agreement. The Supreme Court of Justice ruled in favor of the National Agency for Competition Protection (ANPC), which sued the economic entities after discovering the agreement, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Agency’s director Viorica Carare told a news conference that the ANPC established that two companies importing insulin broke the Law on Competition Protection by taking part in the tender contests staged in a centralized way by the Medication Agency in 2009-2010 with identical prices set in coordination. The Medication Agency, which is the contracting authority, divided the offer. “As a result, the tender contest had a damaging effect on society as the patients could benefit from a larger quantity of insulin free of charge,” said Viorica Carare. She also said that the case “Insulin” was divided into two and the decision was passed only in one of them “We hope we will win the second case too.” Viorica Carare stated that until 2007, there was only one importer of insulin and the price for an ampoule was 155 lei. Afterward, there appeared a new importer and the price fell to 101 lei in 2008. Later, the two companies reached a cartel agreement and the price was raised to 138 lei and more. According to Viorica Carare, there are signs of cartel agreements this year again. “Regretfully, the Medication Agency did not adopt a different approach at the tender contest held this year. The existing signs show the essence did not change, only the algorithm is different,” she stated.