U.S. pharmaceutical company Viatris has been penalized by Morocco’s competition authority with a 7.58 million dirham ($760,000) fine for neglecting to notify the regulator about its merger.
The merger, which combined Mylan’s Moroccan subsidiary and Pfizer’s Upjohn business in 2020 to form Viatris, triggered the notification requirement under Moroccan competition law.
The imposed fine, amounting to 2.5% of Viatris’ Moroccan revenue from the previous year, has already been paid to the Moroccan treasury.
The company opted against appealing the regulator’s decision.
While Viatris has not yet commented on the matter, the Moroccan competition authority is reportedly investigating other mergers that may have similarly bypassed the notification process.
These include a joint venture between OCP and Fertinagro Biotech, as well as the acquisition of Whirlpool Middle East and North Africa operations by Arcelik.