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03-26-2018 - AAI Calls on DOJ to Block the Merger of CVS-Aetna — Vertical Integration Will Restructure Important Healthcare Markets, to the Detriment of Competition and Consumers

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, the American Antitrust Institute (AAI) called on the agency to block the proposed merger of retail pharmacy and PBM giant CVS and Big 5 health insurer Aetna. CVS-Aetna would pair up the largest retail pharmacy chain and one of the two largest PBMs with the third largest health insurer in the U.S. The proposed merger raises a number of questions for competition and consumers. The AAI letter focuses on the merger’s potential to enhance the incentive of CVS-Aetna to exclude rivals and facilitate anticompetitive coordination among health insurers served by PBM CVS-Caremark. CVS and Aetna already wield significant market power in the retail pharmacy, PBM, and health insurance markets. High concentration in these markets exacerbates competitive concerns. Market idiosyncrasies heighten the proposed merger’s potentially anticompetitive effects. These include the role of health insurers in paying for most prescriptions filled and of PBMs in managing the flow of prescription drugs to millions of Americans, and PBM markets that lack important transparency.

04-09-2018 - AAI Highlights Need to Realign Merger Remedies With the Goals of Antitrust

In a white paper released today “Realigning Merger Remedies with the Goals of Antitrust,” the American Antitrust Institute makes the case for why remedies policy may be at an important inflection point. The paper notes that we do not yet know the full extent to which rising concentration, slowing rates of startups, and widening inequality gaps are the product of the lax antitrust enforcement that has prevailed in U.S. for three decades. But as the story continues to unfold, it remains clear that merger enforcement should be high on the antitrust agenda.

04-09-2018 - Speaker Line Up Announced for AAI Annual Conference

2018 marks the American Antitrust Institute’s 20th anniversary as the leading independent, nonprofit organization devoted to promoting competition that protects consumers, businesses, and society. In celebration of this important milestone, on Thursday, June 21, 2018, the American Antitrust Institute will host its 19th Annual Conference “Antitrust at a Crossroads: Plotting the Policy Course for the Next Decade.”

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Retail and Distribution

At a time of unusually rapid change, antitrust can be applied flexibly and effectively to meet the unique competitive challenges posed by technological progress. AAI applies antitrust and competition policy to support a competitive marketplace of ideas. . This requires interpreting emerging concepts of systems, platforms, and networks in the light of strategic behavior, concerns about high levels of concentration, globalization, and a high value on innovation.

Analysis of Antitrust Challenges to Category Captain Arrangements by Debra M. Desrochers, Gregory T. Gundlach, and Albert A. Foer

Feb 06 2004

Debra M. Desrochers

Gregory T. Gundlach

Bert Foer

Commentaries

Retail and Distribution