The chairman of the Senate’s antitrust panel on Thursday urged the Federal Trade Commission to pay special attention to prescription drug shortages when weighing whether to approve pharmaceutical industry mergers. “Maintaining a competitive pharmaceutical market is the highest priority, and these reports of drug shortages are very troubling to me,” Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) wrote to FTC Chairman Jonathan Leibowitz. “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.”
