Senator Wants FTC to Investigate Drugmakers for Antitrust Violations

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) is calling on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate certain drugmakers for possible antitrust violations in light of recent drug price increases.

In a letter to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, Klobuchar singles out Turing Pharmaceuticals, which hiked the price of infectious disease drug Daraprim by 5,000 percent last month — from $13.50 to $750 a tablet — but then reversed course following public pressure.

Companies could be using a restricted distribution system to exclude competition from the market, Klobuchar writes. “If a company were to employ this strategy to deny competitors supply for use in a generic application, it would be doing more than simply raising prices,” she adds.

Klobuchar has taken on drug price hikes in the past, including challenging Ovation Pharmaceuticals’ price-gouging and anticompetitive practices after the company increased the price of a drug used to treat heart conditions in premature infants by nearly 1,300 percent.

In September, Democratic members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sent a letter to committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) demanding answers from Valeant Pharmaceuticals regarding massive price increases on two heart disease drugs. — Jonathon Shacat