The Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, will host a two-day virtual workshop to explore new approaches to enforcing the antitrust laws in the pharmaceutical industry. The workshop, organized by FTC and DOJ staff, offices of state attorneys general, and international enforcement partners, will take place virtually from 9:00am to 12:00pm EDT on Tuesday, June 14 and 9:00am – 11:30am on Wednesday, June 15.

The workshop is the culmination of the Multilateral Pharmaceutical Merger Task Force, formed in March 2021 by then-Acting Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter to consider how to address the varied competitive concerns that pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions raise. Members of the Task Force include staff from the Federal Trade Commission, Canada’s Competition Bureau, the European Commission Directorate General for Competition, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, and Offices of State Attorneys General.

The workshop will feature a keynote delivered by Commissioner Slaughter and panels organized by Task Force members. Commissioner Slaughter’s keynote will start the first day of the workshop, followed by plenary sessions on market concentration in the pharmaceutical sector and merger remedies. The second day will feature sessions on innovation aspects of pharmaceutical mergers and how conduct by pharmaceutical companies affects merger analysis.

The virtual workshop is open to the public and registration is not required. We encourage health policy experts, economists, attorneys, scientists, healthcare practitioners, academics, consumers, and other interested persons to view the live webcast.