FTC

Commission might consider Rx and OTC drugs part of same relevant market during future determinations of whether merging companies need to divest competing products, Bureau of Competition acting director Molly Boast says at recent American Bar Association meeting. Referring to commission's review of GlaxoSmithKline merger and its Rx smoking cessation drug Zyban, OTC NicoDerm CQ transdermal patch and OTC Nicorette gum, Boast notes developments, such as "the lifting of prohibitions on direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs," led FTC to "examine more closely the question of whether...[they] constrained each other's pricing." However, different distribution channels, consumers' ability to compare pricing of NicoDerm CQ and Nicorette with private label items and different mechanisms of action among cessation products led commission to determine divestiture was unnecessary, she suggests