Economic Liberties Applauds FTC’s Block of Private Equity Power Grab in Medical Device Market
Washington, D.C. — Following news that the Federal Trade Commission has voted 4-0 to file a lawsuit blocking GTCR BC Holdings, LLC’s (GTCR) acquisition of Surmodics, Inc. (Surmodics), a deal that would consolidate control of over half of the outsourced hydrophilic coatings market for medical devices, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.
“The FTC’s challenge to this deal is a smart and necessary step to protect competition in the medical device industry,” said Emma Freer, Senior Policy Analyst for Healthcare at the American Economic Liberties Project. “By blocking GTCR’s attempt to dominate the outsourced hydrophilic coatings market, the agency is ensuring that hospitals, doctors, and ultimately patients will continue to benefit from lower prices and ongoing innovation. This decision also signals that the FTC is serious about addressing private equity’s tightening grip on critical healthcare markets in line with the merger guidelines that Chair Ferguson recently reaffirmed.”
The healthcare industry is plagued by extreme consolidation made even worse by increasing private equity ownership. An extensive body of evidence shows that this consolidation results in higher costs and worse quality of care, among other harms. Continuing robust antitrust enforcement is crucial to ensuring fair and competitive healthcare markets.
Learn more about Economic Liberties’s Break Up Big Medicine initiative to address healthcare consolidation here.
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.