For Immediate Release: May 6, 2020

Press Contact: Robyn Shapiro, rshapiro@economicliberties.us

AbbVie-Allergan Merger Will Raise Costs, Reduce Innovation, and Prolong Drug Shortages

Washington, D.C. – The American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement in response to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) announcement yesterday that it approved pharmaceutical company AbbVie’s $63 billion acquisition of Allergan in a 3-2 vote with Commissioners Chopra and Slaughter dissenting.

“The disastrous AbbVie-Allergan megamerger will raise costs for consumers, reduce innovation, and prolong ongoing drug shortages,” said Economic Liberties Policy Analyst Olivia Webb. “By recklessly allowing AbbVie, which produces highly lucrative drugs like Humira, to acquire Allergan, which produces Botox, the FTC is rubber-stamping big pharma’s efforts to get even bigger and raise prices even more.”

“Although Commissioner Christine Wilson claims the agency thoroughly reviewed the proposed merger, the record shows the FTC simply doubled down on its myopic status quo approach, requiring only a few drug divestments with no evidence that the corporations given divested drugs will bring them to market in a competitive way,” Webb added. “As Commissioner Rohit Chopra noted in his dissent, it ‘strains the bounds of credulity’ that the FTC believes the corporations receiving the divested drugs—including Nestle, the food and beverage company—will provide serious competition to the existing pharmaceutical behemoths.”

“If the FTC is going to remake the pharmaceutical industry from home with little regard for competition or the impact of a global pandemic, Congress ought to step in and pass a merger moratorium to ensure markets remain competitive throughout this crisis,” said Webb.

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Economic Liberties works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. AELP believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.