A U.S. lawmaker is appealing to the Federal Trade Commission to consider the implications on drug supply and pricing in pharma M&A activity. Senator Herb Kohl has written FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, asking him to look beyond anti-competitiveness in company deals that involve prescription drugs.
Conversely, Kohl asks Leibowitz also to look into drug shortages to see if they might be the result of anticompetitive behavior.
A decade of consolidation may have hampered the drug industry's capacity to produce vital medicines, Kohl says in a statement. "While I recognize that often shortages are likely to have causes not related to these competition issues, antitrust enforcers--particularly when reviewing drug company mergers--must be cognizant of these shortages when applying antitrust law to the drug industry."
Kohl serves as Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, which has oversight authority over the FTC.
- here's the statement, letter included