Economist with healthcare and pharmaceutical background to lead FTC's Bureau of Economics

On April 13, 2021, Acting Federal Trade Commission Chair Rebecca Kelly Slaughter announced that she had appointed Marta E. Wosińska to lead the FTC's Bureau of Economics. Dr. Wosińska is set to join the FTC later this month. With a background in the economics of healthcare and pharmaceuticals markets, Dr. Wosińska's appointment will likely strengthen the FTC's enforcement against mergers in the healthcare and pharmaceutical spaces.

Dr. Wosińska will be leading a Bureau with significant experience in analyzing healthcare and pharmaceutical mergers, which accounted for nearly half of all FTC enforcement actions in 2020. With the recent announcement that the FTC has joined a multilateral working group with the Department of Justice, state attorneys general, and various foreign antitrust enforcers to update the approach to analyzing the effects of pharmaceutical mergers, Dr. Wosińska may also have a significant impact on the future of pharmaceutical merger review.

Dr. Wosińska joins the FTC from the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University. Her government experience includes previous roles as the Chief Healthcare Economist in the HHS Office of the Inspector General and the Director for Economics Staff at the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Although the current Commissioners unanimously approved the appointment of Dr. Wosińska, permanent Commissioner appointments are still pending, which leaves room for additional staffing changes later on.

Norton Rose Fulbright has significant experience in healthcare and pharmaceutical antitrust matters. We would be pleased to assist healthcare and pharmaceutical companies in monitoring the FTC's evolving approach to investigating healthcare and pharmaceutical matters and developing ways to navigate the FTC review process.