Turkish regulator fines several big drugmakers for ‘no-poach’ agreements

Antitrust regulators in Turkey have fined more than a dozen large pharmaceutical companies — including global drugmakers such as Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Novartis — for agreeing not to poach employees from one another, a move that disrupted the domestic labor market.

The Turkish Competition Authority also found that some of the companies shared competitively sensitive information about future salaries and benefits. Both practices violated competition laws and resulted in fines totaling about $5.6 million on the 17 companies that engaged in anticompetitive behavior.

In a brief statement, the regulator said these practices undermine competition in the pharmaceutical sector and disrupt employee mobility, which can lead to artificial constraints on salaries and career opportunities. In doing so, the companies failed to foster a competitive environment that could benefit society, the regulator said.