Articles Posted in FTC Antitrust Highlights

On Monday, October 26, 2015, in a joint statement, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice urged the state of Virginia to reform or repeal its certificate-of-need (CON) law. CON laws typically require hospitals to obtain government approval before undergoing expansion projects or purchasing major assets, including hospital equipment.  Virginia is known…

On Monday, October 26, 2015, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) Chairwoman, Edith Ramirez, requesting that the FTC investigate possible illegal collusion by saline solution manufacturers. In their letter, the senators noted that there has been a…

On August 4, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued its Best Practices for Merger Investigations.  The Best Practices provide guidance to merging parties on steps they can work cooperatively with the staff by engaging in early discussions, determining effectively when to pull and refile an HSR notification form, narrowing Second Requests, engage in a quick look…

On May 29, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) issued an administrative complaint alleging that Steris Corporation’s (“Steris”) proposed $1.9 billion acquisition of Synergy Health plc (“Synergy”) would violate the antitrust laws by significantly reducing future competition in regional markets for sterilization of products using radiation, particularly gamma or x-ray radiation. Background On October 13,…

On March 13, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced revisions to its rules regarding the FTC’s process of determining whether to continue on with an administrative challenge to a merger in the situation when it loses a preliminary injunction motion in federal court. When the FTC seeks to challenge a transaction, the FTC generally…

On September 10, 2014, the House Judiciary Committee passed legislation to eliminate certain discrepancies between merger reviews conducted by the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice. The Standard Merger and Acquisition Reviews Through Equal Rules Act (SMARTER Act), H.R. 5402, introduced by Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX), would codify certain recommendations included in a 2007…

On September 8, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania alleging that several major pharmaceutical companies with entering into an anticompetitive agreement that effectively blocks U.S. consumers’ access to lower-cost versions of the blockbuster drug AndroGel. Background on Reverse Payment The agreement…

On September 5, 2014, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that it is retracting the proposed settlement agreement with Phoebe Putney Health System, Inc (“Phoebe”), for the extended antitrust litigation regarding its acquisition of its rival Palmyra Park Hospital (“Palmyra”) in Albany, Georgia. The FTC decided to retract its initial proposed settlement, which included no…

On September 5, 2014, following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has approved a final order settling charges that Actavis plc (“Actavis”)’s acquisition of Forest Laboratories (“Forest”), Inc. would likely be anticompetitive. Under the proposed order, the two companies agreed to divest four drugs in order to preserve competition in those markets. On July…

On August 28, 2014, Pharmaceutical company Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc. (“Prestige”), the maker of Dramamine, agreed to divest assets and marketing rights for the over-the-counter (“OTC”) motion sickness drug Bonine to settle Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) charges that Prestige’s proposed acquisition of Insight Pharmaceuticals Corporation (“Insight”) would likely be anticompetitive.  Prestige proposed to acquire Insight…