Antitrust enforcers roll out draft guidelines amid crackdown on pharmaceutical mergers

The Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion and De­part­ment of Jus­tice un­veiled new draft merg­er guide­lines on Wednes­day that pro­vide a reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work for the agency’s tougher stance on merg­ers, in­clud­ing in the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal sec­tor.

An­titrust en­forcers, which once fo­cused on di­rect com­pe­ti­tion, have tak­en a wider ap­proach to ex­am­ine how phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals lever­age their ne­go­ti­at­ing pow­er. The shift was sig­naled in a work­shop last year, but the agency has sought to strength­en its le­gal po­si­tion by for­mal­ly re­leas­ing up­dat­ed guide­lines.

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