A Vial Decision

We have heard of current cases in the drug industry in which the Federal Trade Commission is trying to predict the regulatory future. If the FTC is using its predictive powers as the basis for anti-trust decisions going forward, as appears at least in part to have been the case when it announced its intention to block the proposed merger between cervical cancer screening companies Cytyc and Digene, we find the reasoning problematic, and philosophically troubling.