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FTC charges "tight oligopoly" in US plasma industry in court papers opposing CSL acquisition of Talecris
The Age, Australia
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has made startling new allegations against CSL, accusing Australia’s largest health-care company of exploring means of “punishing firms” that don’t comply with industry agreed output levels and seeking to conceal its litigation with the regulator from the public.
In documents it filed over the weekend, the FTC also said CSL and its rivals used specific words at public events to remind each other that increasing production of lifesaving drugs could hurt profits.
“It is similar to language that in other instances has been found to be evidence supporting an illegal price-fixing conspiracy,” the FTC said in a motion to an administrative law judge.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is aware of the FTC’s case but at this stage has declined to comment.
The blistering attack on CSL comes as US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that CSL was temporarily restrained from consummating a $3.1 billion takeover of rival Talecris Biotherapeutics as the FTC prepares its case against the deal.
