4 Firms Plead Guilty in Vitamin Price Fixing

Two U.S. and two German drug companies agreed to plead guilty and pay $33 million in fines for participating in a conspiracy to fix the price of vitamins sold worldwide, the Justice Department said. In criminal cases filed in U.S. District Court in Dallas, the department charged that Nepera Inc., based in Harriman, N.Y., and Reilly Industries Inc. of Indianapolis conspired to raise the price and control the supply of vitamin B3, also known as niacin. Two Nepera executives also pleaded guilty in separate cases and agreed to fines and prison terms. German company Degussa-Huls was charged separately in the vitamin B3 conspiracy. In another case, Merck KGaA, also based in Germany, was accused of a similar plot connected with vitamin C. With these cases, the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division will have collected more than $758 million from 24 prosecutions against participants in international vitamin cartels. Justice Department officials say the vitamin conspiracy lasted from January 1990 to February 1999 and involved vitamins A, B2, B3, B5, C and E. Merck will pay a $14 million fine for its role in vitamin C price fixing. In the B3 conspiracy, Degussa-Huls will pay a fine of $13 million, Nepera of $4 million and Reilly Industries of $2 million.