Tag: Drug Stores and Pharmacies

Cardinal Health, Inc. agreed to resolve charges that it illegally monopolized 25 local markets for the sale and distribution of low-energy radiopharmaceuticals and forced hospitals and clinics to pay inflated prices for these drugs. According to the FTC’s complaint, through separate acquisitions in 2003 and 2004, Cardinal became the largest operator of radiopharmacies in the United States and the sole radiopharmacy operator in 25 metropolitan areas. Between 2003 and 2008, Cardinal employed various tactics to coerce and induce two suppliers to refuse to grant distribution rights for their respective heart perfusion agents products to new competitors in the relevant markets. As a result of these tactics, the complaint alleges that Cardinal obtained de facto exclusive distribution rights to the only HPAs available on the market and prevented numerous potential entrants from gaining access to these radiopharmaceuticals. The stipulated order requires Cardinal to pay $26.8 million of ill-gotten gains and represents the second largest monetary settlement the FTC has obtained in an antitrust case. The money will be deposited into a fund for distribution to injured customers. The order also includes provisions to prevent future violations and restore competition in six markets where Cardinal remains the dominant radiopharmacy.

A Puerto Rican cooperative of pharmacy owners, Cooperativa de Farmacias Puertorriqueñas, known as "Coopharma," agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it harmed competition by negotiating, entering into, and implementing agreements among its member pharmacies to fix prices on which they contract with insurers and pharmacy benefit managers. In settling the charges, Coopharma has agreed not to engage in such conduct in the future.

The Commission required Cardinal Health, Inc. to reconstitute and sell nuclear pharmacies in Las Vegas, Nevada; Albuquerque, New Mexico, and El Paso, Texas under a settlement order resolving the agency’s charges that Cardinal’s purchase of nuclear pharmacies from Biotech reduced competition for low-energy radiopharmaceuticals in the three cities.