New FTC Working Group Must Get Tough on Pharma Mergers
The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it will launch a working group with European, British and Canadian antitrust agencies, as well as state attorneys general, to revise their approach to pharmaceutical mergers. Public Citizen previously released a report detailing how FTC can prevent anti-competitive conduct. Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicine division, issued the following statement:
“Far too often the FTC has let consumers down by allowing mergers between price-gouging, monopoly-abusing pharma giants. These mergers limit price-cutting competition and hurt innovation by swallowing product lines. We are glad to see this cooperation with competition authorities abroad. Hopefully FTC will learn something and get serious about bringing the full force of FTC’s authority to combat harmful mergers, price abuse, and the full range of anti-competitive conduct perpetrated by Big Pharma.”