Mexico’s antitrust watchdog fined Lilly and three Mexican drugmakers for colluding to inflate prices in government tenders for medicine. The drugmakers allegedly took turns placing winning bids to buy insulin from 2003 to 2006, eliminating competition and ensuring artificially high prices, Reuters writes. A Lilly spokeswoman denied the charges and plans to appeal.

“The companies that have been fined conspired for years to make badly needed medicine artificially expensive,” commission head Eduardo Perez-Motta said in a statement. The drugmakers, as well as unit of Baxter International, were each fined $1.7 million, the maximum allowed prior to 2006, when Mexico’s competition laws were beefed up, Reuters adds.

Separately, the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission expanded a probe into Lilly’s compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribery of foreign officials. The SEC notified Lilly in 2003 it was investigating whether overseas units of various drugmakers in Poland violated the law; the probe is now focusing on other countries (see page 15 of this SEC filing). Recently, the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division warned drugmakers there will be more criminal enforcement against interactions with foreign officials (see here).