South African drug maker Aspen Pharmacare on Tuesday dismissed reports that its books were under scrutiny by an independent US research group, Viceroy Research, for possible accounting irregularities in its 2017 financial year.
This comes after market speculation regarding a possible report into Aspen being undertaken by Viceroy Research, a research group which published an exposé on Steinhoff International Holdings recently.
"Aspen shareholders are advised that it has had no contact with Viceroy Research and, as such, is unable to confirm that this speculation is correct," Aspen said in a terse statement.
"Aspen furthermore advises that it is not aware of any information of a price sensitive nature that requires communication to shareholders and that trading in the current financial year has been consistent with the prospects communicated to shareholders in the 2017 financial year results."
In October 2017, the Competition Commission dropped its investigation into allegations that pharmaceutical companies, including Aspen Pharmacare and Equity Pharma, were involved in excessive pricing.
The commission had in June initiated three investigations against both companies for suspected abuse of dominance and excessive pricing in the provision of specific cancer medicines in South Africa.