Justia Antitrust & Trade Regulation Opinion Summaries

This case arose when the Washington State Department of Health (Department) would not license Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital (Memorial) to perform certain procedures known as elective percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) where, according to the Department, the community Memorial served did not need another PCI provider. The district court held that Memorial failed to state a claim of antitrust preemption, holding that the PCI regulations were a unilateral restraint on trade not barred by the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1-7. With regard to Memorial's claims under the dormant Commerce Clause, the district court found Memorial had standing because it alleged it would participate in an interstate market for PCI patients, doctors, and supplies. Nevertheless, the district court found that any burden on Memorial's interstate commercial activity was expressly authorized by Congress' approval of certificate of need regimes, making a dormant Commerce Clause violation impossible. The court agreed that Memorial failed to state a claim of antitrust preemption because the PCI regulations were a unilateral licensing requirement rather than an agreement in restraint of trade. The court also agreed that Memorial had standing under the dormant Commerce Clause, but reversed the district court's judgment on that claim because the Department failed to prove congressional authorization for the PCI regulations. View "Yakima Valley Memorial Hosp. v. WA Dept. of Health, et al." on Justia Law

The FTC sued Lundbeck, Inc., alleging that its acquisition of the drug NeoProfen violated the Federal Trade Commission Act, 15 U.S.C. 41 et seq., the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1-7, the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. 12-27, the Minnesota Antitrust Law of 1971, and unjustly enriched Lundbeck. At issue was whether the district court properly determined that the FTC failed to identify a relevant market where the FTC did not meet its burden of proving that the drugs Indocin IV and Neoprofen were in the same product market. The court held that the district court's finding was not clearly erroneous and affirmed the judgment. View "Federal Trade Commission v. Lundbeck, Inc." on Justia Law

The hospital filed the proposed class action, alleging that the pharmaceutical company violate antitrust "tying" prohibitions by using its knowledge of insurance reimbursement rates to leverage its market power in one market—White Blood Cell Growth Factor drugs—to impair competition in the market for Red Blood Cell Growth Factor drugs (Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1 and Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. 14, 15). The district court dismissed on the ground that the hospital was not a "direct purchaser." The Sixth Circuit affirmed. The mechanics of the hospital's contracts for acquiring the drugs show it to be an indirect purchaser that placed orders and received the drugs through a middleman, despite some direct communications between the manufacturer and the hospital and a rebate program between the two. The court rejected the hospital's claim that it should be granted standing as the first party in the distribution chain to suffer injury from the anti-competitive conduct. View "Warren Gen. Hosp. v. Amgen, Inc." on Justia Law