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The U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is pleased to be a part of the Multilateral Pharmaceutical Merger Task Force (Task Force), along with its counterpart competition enforcement agencies — the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Canadian Competition Bureau, the European Commission Directorate General for Competition, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority, and Offices of State Attorneys General.

The Task Force, initiated by the FTC, seeks to identify concrete and actionable steps to refresh and update the analysis of pharmaceutical mergers. To facilitate a robust discussion of the ways to study the impact of pharmaceutical mergers, the Task Force requests public input, including from health policy experts, economists, attorneys, scientists, health care practitioners, academics, and consumers, on issues potentially implicated with pharmaceutical mergers. For more details about providing comments to the Task Force, including submission and timing information, please see the FTC’s Notice. Following public comment, the Task Force anticipates hosting a public workshop.

“The division is excited to participate in this initiative, and we encourage and welcome public input and feedback on this important topic,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard A. Powers of the Antitrust Division. “We look forward to partnering with the Task Force members and engaging with consumers and other market participants in the development of future enforcement and policy efforts relating to pharmaceutical mergers.”

Task Force members encourage the public, including health policy experts, economists, attorneys, scientists, health care practitioners, academics, and consumers, to share ideas that will lead to the development of future enforcement and policy efforts. Accordingly, the Task Force poses these general questions, and encourages the public to submit comments on other issues concerning the effect of pharmaceutical mergers:

What theories of harm should enforcement agencies consider when evaluating pharmaceutical mergers, including theories of harm beyond those currently considered?
What is the full range of a pharmaceutical merger’s effects on innovation? What challenges arise when mergers involve proprietary drug discovery and manufacturing platforms?
In pharmaceutical merger review, how should we consider the risks or effects of conduct such as price setting practices, reverse payments, and other ways in which pharmaceutical companies respond to or rely on regulatory processes?
How should we approach market definition in pharmaceutical mergers, and how is that implicated by new or evolving theories of harm?
What evidence may be relevant or necessary to assess, and if applicable, challenge a pharmaceutical merger based on any new or expanded theories of harm?
What types of remedies would work in the cases to which those theories are applied?
What factors, such as the scope of assets and characteristics of divestiture buyers, influence the likelihood and success of pharmaceutical divestitures to resolve competitive concerns?

For instructions on filing public comments, please see the notice requesting public comment. Comments will be posed to regulations.gov.

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