Antitrust Litigation in the Healthcare Industry
The Blanch Law Firm provides business clients with the best possible defense to charges arising out of complex antitrust investigations and prosecutions in the healthcare industry. Our expert attorneys can help you to navigate the deep and treacherous legal waters flowing through antitrust cases, which require a team-oriented approach and a detailed strategy for optimum results.
Our firm's success is based on a unique approach developed by founder Ryan Blanch, who personally selects six attorneys to work as a team on each case with only one goal in mind: to win for the client. Our criminal defense attorneys have extensive experience negotiating settlements favorable to clients, providing substantial savings in terms of costs-monetary fines and criminal penalties-that are preventable through good lawyering.
Antitrust & Healthcare Today
Because of the politics involved in the current national debate over universal healthcare and medical coverage issues, the Obama administration is heightening scrutiny of "big business" conduct in the healthcare industry.
The president took a significant step in that direction by his promoting Jon Leibowitz to Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from membership on the commission. His position on increased antitrust enforcement in the healthcare industry is well-known, based on his past efforts as a commissioner favoring prohibition of "pay for delay" agreements between drug manufacturers. Such agreements permit brand name drug manufacturers to pay off makers of less expensive generics for the purpose of delaying or preventing competition within the prescription drug market, thereby pumping up their own short term profits. As a commissioner, he went so far as to lambast federal courts for permitting "anticompetitive payoffs" in the healthcare industry. His comments were submitted to the Washington Post newspaper in an article written last year titled, "This Pill Not to Be Taken with Competition".
Consequently, he is developing novel ways attack anti- competitive practices between makers of generic pharma products and brand-name manufacturers. For example, he wants to apply FTC Act Section 5 to healthcare business strategies for launching a new pharma product where they "seem of serve no purpose other than to undermine the ability of a generic [pharma] product to compete."
According to FTC Chairman Leibowitz, expanded use of Section 5 of the FTC Act will result in an improved healthcare industry.
An example of his position is the FTC's recent law suit against Ovation Pharmaceuticals, which provides an antidote for pediatric heart conditions. Ovation was charged with buying the only alternative medical preparation, for the sole purpose of obtaining a monopoly and charging consumers higher prices. In a December 2008 Wall Street Journal article titled, "FTC Sues Ovation in Dispute on Drug Prices", Chairman Leibowitz was quoted as saying that the law suit was "an example of how aggressive we are going to be on health-care competition issues going forward."
The legal remedy he advocates for antitrust wrongdoing in the healthcare industry is profit and earnings disgorgement. In Ovation, the FTC demanded that the company disgorge all profits from the unfair competition it engaged in. And FTC Chairman Leibowitz favors that remedy as a consequence of his vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws throughout the healthcare industry
Because the FTC is now using every available weapon to combat violations within the health care industry, with the potential of forfeiture of profits derived from anti-competitive business practices, the risk of doing business competitively is greater than ever.
If you, your healthcare company or its affiliates, have engaged in unfair competition, turning to The Blanch Law Firm is your best defense. Our Antitrust Attorneys have an unparalleled record of success representing individuals, organizations, companies and their boards of officers and directors in antitrust matters. We handle Government Investigations, compliance proceedings, and enforcement actions in a manner that does the most for our clients.
To discuss your legal options in a free consultation, Contact The Blanch Law Firm by calling 1-866-690-9316.
