Washington, D.C. — Following the American Economic Liberties Project’s advocacy against the Justice Department’s long-standing antitrust safety zone for medical supply middlemen called group purchasing organizations, the DOJ announced on February 3rd that it was withdrawing this outdated policy. In response to this news, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“By repealing three Clinton and Obama era policy statements limiting antitrust enforcement in the healthcare industry, the Biden administration is signaling more aggressive positions against the group purchasing, hospital, physician network, and accountable care cartels that have come to dominate the healthcare landscape over the last 30 years,” said Sara Sirota, Policy Analyst at the American Economic Liberties  Project. “These old and misguided policy statements ushered in the consolidation of medical supply chains under profit-seeking corporations that have reduced patient access to necessary care, made our supply chains brittle, increased wasteful spending, and even threatened national security.”

In particular, the 1990s antitrust safety zone for group purchasing organizations has contributed to chronic drug shortages of everything from X-ray contrast dye to pediatric chemotherapy drugs, as well as scores of other essential medicines.

In November, Economic Liberties led a coalition of advocacy groups to call on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the anti-competitive conduct of these organizations and push for the elimination of this antitrust safety zone.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here. 

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.