• They kept identical unit prices, or put values that were just one per cent of each other’s or bid in a way that helped them split the contract.

• Price differential between Nestor and Pure Pharma was “symmetrical and rotated,” finds the review in both the malaria and TB control projects.

• For example, in tendering for the second combi-blister contract package, Nestor bid a unit price of Rs 0.02 lower than Pure Pharma’s unit price in some schedules. In the remaining schedules, Pure Pharma bid the same unit price difference.

• In RCH earlier, they had bid identical unit prices for the supply of Ferrous Sulphate and Folic acid tablets. The difference in price offered by the two companies was never more than nine paise.

• Both are alleged to have tampered with drugs to undercut competitor’s prices in the malaria project: They are alleged to be providing low bid prices by overstating the amount of raw materials they would need to import in the manufacture the drugs and selling excess raw material on the Indian domestic market without paying taxes and custom duties.

• Nestor won a greater proportion of contracts than Pure Pharma — almost twice as many as Pure Pharma. This mirrored the contract award pattern present when the two firms colluded on RCH tenders and had led to debarring Nestor for three years while Pure Pharma for one year.

•In the TB control Project, the companies submitted identical unit prices and complementary quantities of the entire spectrum of drugs required for the DOTS programme.

... contd.