On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued an “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.” The Order focuses on antitrust issues and contains provisions directly affecting pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical pricing.

The Order states that Americans are paying too much for prescription drugs and healthcare services. It further states that patent laws have been misused to inhibit and delay competition from generic drugs and biosimilars, thus denying Americans access to lower-cost drugs. The Order indicates that the Administration will support aggressive legislative reforms that would lower prescription drug prices, including allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices.

President Biden’s Order makes clear that the goal of his administration is to have the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission “enforce the antitrust laws fairly and vigorously.” You can expect that the DOJ and the FTC will become more aggressive in antitrust enforcement than the last Administration.