The court sentenced fines to six pharmaceutical companies suspected of rigging bids in the government’s National Immunization Program (NIP) bidding process.

According to industry sources, the Seoul Central District Court made such a ruling on Wednesday against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), GC, Boryung Biopharma, Yuhan Corp., SK Discovery, and Kwangdong Pharmaceutical.

The six pharmaceutical companies were indicted in September 2020 on charges of profiteering through collusion while bidding for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines ordered by the government from 2016 to 2018.

As a result, on Wednesday, GC and GSK were each fined 70 million won ($57,344), Boryung Biopharma and Yuhan Corp., 50 million won each, and SK Discovery and Kwangdong Pharmaceutical, 30 million won each.

Also, some of the executives and employees of these companies were fined between 3 million and 5 million won.

While some companies denied the charges during the trial, the court did not accept these claims and found all companies guilty.

“It is a crime against the public interest to form a fair price and harm the national crisis management system and undermine the fairness of the vaccine bidding process,” the court said in its ruling. “Organizational collusion between manufacturers and distributors has occurred several times, and the court estimates that sales generated from the collusion will have reached a considerable amount.”

However, the court said it found that the state presented guidelines for bidding prices and that the successful bid price was formed within the scope of bidding control, so the total amount of unfair profits obtained by the six companies does not appear to be large.

“The court also took into consideration that there were quite a few cases where other distributors who did not participate in the collusion won the bid,” it said.