FTC’s Salvos Against Biopharma To Reverberate Through 2024

The Federal Trade Commission broke new ground last year in its opposition to M&A transactions and challenge of Orange Book patent listings. The biopharma community is waiting to see if deals will face similar hurdles in 2024 and whether there will be legal battles if manufacturers of drug-device combination products decline to delist their patents. Researchers advocate that the FTC extend its inquiry to device patents on GLP-1 receptor agonists, including Wegovy and Ozempic.  

FTC building
Federal Trade Commission took aggressive actions against the biopharma industry last year • Source: Shutterstock

The US Federal Trade Commission took on the biopharmaceutical industry last year with a series of unusual enforcement actions challenging proposed mergers and industry patent listings. Stakeholders are watching to see if the agency will maintain its aggressive stance against the industry and what the fallout will be as some companies have refused to concede to its demands.

In the M&A space, the FTC for the first time challenged a pharma merger based on a novel theory of...

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