News

FTC launches task force to promote competition and consumer protection enforcement in the healthcare industry

24 March 2026

On March 20, 2026 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced the creation of a Healthcare Task Force that will “engage in a coordinated, integrated approach to healthcare enforcement and advocacy to protect American patients, healthcare workers, and taxpayers.” Promoting competition in the healthcare industry has consistently been a stated priority of FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson throughout his tenure, and the creation of the Task Force is also the latest effort by the agency to respond to President Trump's April 2025 Executive Order on lowering drug prices.

In a March 20 memo to FTC leadership, Chair Ferguson directed the FTC's Bureaus of Competition, Consumer Protection, and Economics, the Office of Policy Planning, and the Office of Technology to take advantage of the agency's dual antitrust and consumer protection mandates to “identify and lead targeted enforcement and advocacy initiatives focused on key priorities within the healthcare space”.¹ In addition, Chair Ferguson said the Task Force will help enforcers devise agency-wide strategies on new and nascent investigations in the healthcare industry, and identify emerging issues and new priority areas for enforcement.

Chair Ferguson highlights healthcare enforcement efforts during second Trump Administration

In his memo to agency leadership, Chair Ferguson describes “several wins” he says the FTC has secured in the healthcare industry over the past year, describing enforcement efforts led by both the FTC's Bureau of Competition and the Bureau of Consumer Protection. With respect to competition enforcement, Chair Ferguson touted the February 2026 proposed consent order between the FTC and a leading pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), which he characterized as a “landmark settlement” that “advance[s] the Trump Administration's key healthcare priorities.”

Chair Ferguson also highlighted two of the FTC's successful efforts challenging mergers in the healthcare space, as well as the agency's continued focus on targeting allegedly improperly-listed medical device in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s Orange Book.

Looking ahead

Chair Ferguson announced that the Healthcare Task Force will meet at least once a month and report directly to him on a quarterly basis. In addition, he said that he intends to expand the task force's membership to include additional agency and law enforcement partners such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice.

The creation of the Healthcare Task Force underscores the continued antitrust scrutiny on healthcare, pharmaceutical, and medical device industries in the second Trump Administration.² It also shows consistency with the antitrust priorities of the Biden Administration, which also included a focus on enforcement in the healthcare industry.³ While this may be an issue that enjoys bipartisan support, only time will tell whether the FTC's new task force leads to meaningful changes in health care enforcement policy or direction.

Authored by Chuck Loughlin, Ken Field, Ilana Kattan, and Jill Ottenberg.

References

The Task Force will be co-chaired by one representative from the Bureau of Competition and one representative from the Bureau of Consumer Protection. The Task Force will also include three or more members from each of the FTC Bureau of Competition and the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and one member each from the Office of Policy Planning, the Office of Technology, and the Office of the General Counsel.
In the summer of 2025, the FTC held a series of listening sessions focused on competition in the pharmaceutical industry. A consistent theme across the three sessions was the need for regulators to preserve incentives for robust innovation in the pharmaceutical industry while also targeting barriers that prevent patients from accessing lower-cost drugs.
In May 2024 towards the end of President Biden's term, the DOJ Antitrust Division created a Task Force on Health Care Monopolies and Collusion to consider competition concerns across the health care industry.