US FTC releases 2013 highlights, including action against Actavis and Mylan

The US Federal Trade Commission chairwoman Edith Ramirez has released the agency’s 2013 Annual Highlights, emphasizing the agency’s work to protect consumers and promote competition during the past calendar year. She said: “The hallmark of our work has been, and will continue to be, our ability to adapt established tools – law enforcement, policy initiatives and education – to address economic challenges and technological advances that Congress could never have imagined when it created the FTC.”

The agency’s Enforcement Highlights address a range of law enforcement actions in industries including health care, technology, and energy and the environment. The highlights document said the Commission continued to review pharmaceutical mergers with an eye to preserving competition for generic medications as well as emerging treatments. One such example was the Commission’s challenge to US generic drugmaker Mylan’s (Nasdaq: MYL) proposed $1.85 billion acquisition of Agila Specialties. The FTC alleged that the acquisition likely would reduce competition substantially for 11 generic injectable drugs used to treat a variety of medical conditions, including several types of pediatric cancers, autoimmune diseases, severe hypertension, and urinary tract damage and required Mylan and Agila Specialties to divest these generic injectable drugs before allowing the merger to proceed.

In another example, the FTC required generics major Actavis (NYSE: ACT) to sell all rights and assets to four generic pharmaceuticals to resolve charges that Actavis’ proposed $8.5 billion acquisition of Warner Chilcott would be anticompetitive. The merger was approved by the FTC in December.