The Bundeskartellamt has prohibited the concentration plans of Sanacorp e.G. Pharmazeutische Grosshandlung, Planegg, (turnover in Germany approximately DM 3.89 billion) to acquire a majority holding in Andreae-Noris Zahn AG, Frankfurt am Main (turnover in Germany approximately DM 4.9 billion).

The President of the Bundeskartellamt, Dr Böge said: "The concentration would have led to firms involved gaining dominant positions on certain markets in the wholesale pharmaceutical sector in southern Germany and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The German wholesale pharmaceutical sector is already characterised by a very tight market structure with only four firms operating nationally or cross-regionally. If the third and fourth-largest pharmaceutical wholesalers had joined forces to become the German market leader, the level of concentration would also have increased further at national level."

The undertakings have large market shares in almost all the regional markets in Germany. In large parts of southern Germany and in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania their market shares consistently add up to more than 40 per cent, with much higher values in some regional markets. The clear distance to the market share of the next largest competitors has remained stable in the last few years. The Bundeskartellamt assumes that as regards the firms' established distribution structures, the situation is unlikely to change fundamentally in the future.