Mexico regulator eyes more pharma investigations

President of Cofeco-Mexico's competition commission Eduardo Perez Motta (L) speaks during an interview at Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Mexico City May 3, 2010.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's top antitrust regulator said on Monday he could launch new investigations into pharmaceutical companies for colluding to inflate prices.

In February, Mexico's Federal Commission Competition fined Eli Lilly and Co and three other pharmaceutical companies, saying they took turns placing winning bids in government tenders to buy insulin from 2003 to 2006, eliminating competition and ensuring artificially high prices.

Eli Lilly has said it would appeal the ruling.

"We're continuing to look into doing more investigations," Eduardo Perez Motta, head of Mexico's Federal Competition Commission said at the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Mexico City on Monday, when asked about pharmaceutical companies.

He did not specify what companies he could investigate.

"There could be more (fines). I can't give more details about them, but there could be more," he said.

The regulator also fined in February the Mexican units of Baxter International Inc, and Fresenius Kabi, controlled by German healthcare conglomerate Fresenius SE, for colluding to boost prices in government tenders for intravenous solutions.

The companies were fined $1.7 million each, the maximum allowed when the incidents occurred.

Perez Motta said fines in the future could be much higher if antitrust reforms are approved by Mexico's senate later this year.

"The sanctions, in the case of these businesses, are small sanctions because the law doesn't permit us to impose bigger sanctions," Perez Motta said.

Last week, Mexico's lower house of Congress approved a bill that would allow fines of up to 10 percent of a company's annual revenue in Mexico if the company has been found to be violating competition laws.

"If we are able to apply the law that is in the process of being debated in the Senate, these sanctions could be much bigger than they are now," Perez Motta said.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich and Emily Chasan, editing by Carol Bishopric)