Two major Swiss pharmaceutical companies are under fire in Italy after the country's antitrust agency charged them with colluding on the sale of drugs. Novartis and Roche were found to have joined together to push the cost of their drugs higher, and actively worked together to exclude other cheaper drugs.

The two companies collaborated to push their Lucentis medications, which blocks growth of abnormal blood vessels. The treatment addresses age-related macular degeneration by blocking the growth of such blood vessels in the eye.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Italian Competition Authority found Roche and Novartis in collusion for pushing doctors to purposefully exclude other less expensive drugs that perform similar treatments as Lucentis from the market.