FTC Should Block Pfizer/Mylan Merger: Public Citizen

Public Citizen says the Federal Trade Commission should block the proposed merger of Pfizer’s Upjohn unit with Mylan because it is anti-consumer. The consumer advocacy group says the proposal “would merge two notorious price gouging and allegedly price fixing firms into a generics behemoth that swallows product lines and makes medicine more expensive.”

The group says that Mylan competes on two-thirds of the medicines that Upjohn sells. Equally important, it says, a merger of two of the largest generic manufacturers would eliminate potential future competition in the generics sector.

Public Citizen notes that both companies are in a lawsuit brought by 44 states against generic drug makers for fixing prices. “Generic competition is the most effective way to make medicine affordable, but only when there is real competition in the generics sector,” the Public Citizen statement says.