Reckitt accused of racket over NHS medicines

HOUSEHOLD products giant Reckitt Benckiser has been accused by the Office of Fair Trading of abusing its dominant position in the supply of heartburn medicines to the NHS.

The OFT alleges that Reckitt sought to restrict competition to its Gaviscon product by offering family doctors only a more expensive version of the product when they searched prescribing software.

Simon Williams, senior director at the OFT, said: "This case raises significant and complex competition issues relating to the supply of prescription drugs to the NHS."

The OFT said it would wait for a response from Reckitt before giving a final verdict on whether it believes competition law has been broken.

If found guilty, Reckitt could face a potential fine of up to 10 per cent of its worldwide turnover.

Reckitt said it believes it "competes fairly and within the letter and spirit of the law in all of our operations".