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Quotes about Antitrust from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"Over the next seven years he embarked on a vigorous antitrust policy. When the defects of the Sherman Act became apparent, the Clayton antitrust Act of 1914 furthered the government's assault on corporate combinations. The premise of the "community of interest" theory of stock prices turned out to be wrong; those who expressed high optimism for stocks on this basis were not thinking of all that could go wrong. People were not considering the possibility that society would not tolerate this shift of wealth toward stockholders." - Brian Fagan, Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations (Get the book.)

"Dr Jerry Avron has addressed this in the New England Journal of Medicine: Normally, antitrust laws would prohibit a manufacturer from offering a drug only when 'bundled' with another one of its products. It appears that Pfizer will avoid such antitrust prohibitions by having the FDA do its bundling for it. The FDA's acceptance of the proposed trial designs in effect acknowledges that since the new drug is Pfizer's intellectual property, the company's research plans are subject only to its own corporate prerogative." - Jacky Law, Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda (Get the book.)

"Antitrust laws currently make it difficult for hospitals and doctors to share savings. Another impediment is the so-called Stark rules, which currently restrict, but don't eliminate, a doctor's ability to self-refer, or send patients to facilities the doctor owns an interest in or for tests from which the doctor will profit. But if these laws can be made, they can be revoked or amended in order to allow Medicare to bring down costs and improve medical practice." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"As the chairman of the Senate's antitrust and Monopoly Subcommittee he had already taken on the steel and railroad industries. A few years earlier he had made the cover of Time magazine for his investigation of organized crime. In December 1959 Senator Kefauver turned his attention to the pharmaceutical industry and began what would be a long series of hearings probing its practices. Stories had begun to appear of patients searching for a cheaper antibiotic and finding them all priced the same, sometimes to the penny." - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.)

"It was resentment of business that ended the "community of interest" boom after 1901 (see Chapter 6), by spurring vigorous antitrust legislation and regulation of corporations, and it was such resentment after 1929, in encouraging the growth of socialist and communist movements, that created an unusually uncertain and unstable atmosphere for the economy in the 1930s. A pro-business U.S. Congress has cut corporate profits taxes, and a pro-business Bush administration has created an environment in which businesses have felt more free to avoid taxes." - Brian Fagan, Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations (Get the book.) "Presumably they did not consider this because there had not yet been any concrete antitrust activity. Yet in thinking about the level of the stock market, one must of course consider the long-run earnings, spread over future decades, that the market represents, and of the potential for society to make adjustments, positive or negative, to control this earnings stream." - Brian Fagan, Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations (Get the book.)

"It appears that Pfizer will avoid such antitrust prohibitions by having the FDA do its bundling for it. The FDA's acceptance of the proposed trial designs in effect acknowledges that since the new drug is Pfizer's intellectual property, the company's research plans are subject only to its own corporate prerogative.26 The price of innovation All industries thrive on novelty; the differences with pharma are that, first, the degree of novelty can be well disguised, and second, its value bears little relationship to price." - Jacky Law, Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda (Get the book.)

"It was true that there was a "slight" antitrust issue in Merck owning the company: Medco's first allegiance, at least in negotiations over drug prices, was not, in theory and in law, to Merck. It was to the customer. Just prior to Merck's acquisition, for example, Medco was urging doctors to shift from Merck's Mevacor to Squibb's Pravachol, for price reasons. But Gilmartin did not see complexities and problems as much as he saw synergies and opportunities." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"In 1926, thirty-seven fertilizer companies paid fines for violating antitrust laws. In 1941, sixty-nine fertilizer companies paid fines for similar violations. Unfortunately, the fines were just a slap on the wrist to the companies and amounted to $2568.00 for each defendant in 1926 and $3765.00 for each corporation in 1941. By 1958, nearly all the large potash and nitrogen producers had been parties to consent decrees with the Department of Justice, admitting their guilt. As the fines above show, the violators were not punished." - Will Allen, The War on Bugs (Get the book.)

"It was a decision fraught with antitrust perils, but Leschly believed he could hurdle such obstacles. He also invested $125 million in the emerging science of pharmacogenomics, the use of data from the Human Genome Project to target genes that caused illness. The two undertakings became near obsessions. Increasingly Leschly saw pills not as chemicals but as software — and he saw that analogy as a way to justify the prices he had to charge." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"Slotting Allowances and the antitrust Laws." Testimony presented by Williard K. Tom, October 29, 1999. http://www.ftc.gov/os/1999/10/slotting991020.htm (accessed January 11, 2005). Finke, Michael. "Did the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act Affect Food Choices in the United States?" Selected conference paper. The American Consumer and the Changing Structure of the Pood System. Economic Research Service, USDA, May 4-5, 2000, Arlington, VA. Finke, Michael S., and D. Weaver. "The Relationship Between the Use of Sugar Content Information on Nutrition Labels and the Consumption of Added Sugars." - Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., Sugar Shock!: How Sweets and Simple Carbs Can Derail Your Life-- and How YouCan Get Back on Track (Get the book.)

"Such practices, however, were common in the fertilizer industry In 1906, sixty-one phosphate and mixed-fertilizer companies were charged by the Justice Department with forming a cartel through a Canadian corporation. As early as 1916 the FTC published findings that profit margins on certain fertilizers were overly excessive. In 1926, thirty-seven fertilizer companies paid fines for violating antitrust laws. In 1941, sixty-nine fertilizer companies paid fines for similar violations. Unfortunately, the fines were just a slap on the wrist to the companies and amounted to $2568." - Will Allen, The War on Bugs (Get the book.)

"In fourteen months he filed thirty-four antitrust actions. "The consumer was always the bottom line for Lew," recalls Bob Lewis, who served on Engman's staff. "Ts this going to benefit the consumer?' That was always the question he asked at the end of the debate about anything." By the time he left the FTC in 1977, when a Democratic administration was about to take office, Engman had succeeded in making deregulation a mainstream Republican goal. At age forty-two, he was a GOP legend." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"There are, of course, legal and practical barriers to such a plan. antitrust laws currently make it difficult for hospitals and doctors to share savings. Another impediment is the so-called Stark rules, which currently restrict, but don't eliminate, a doctor's ability to self-refer, or send patients to facilities the doctor owns an interest in or for tests from which the doctor will profit. But if these laws can be made, they can be revoked or amended in order to allow Medicare to bring down costs and improve medical practice." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"In a news release dated 2004, the AIDS Foundation filed an antitrust and restraint of trade lawsuit against the pharmaceutical giant Abbott Laboratories. Novir, the "old" AIDS drug, underwent a five-fold increase (from $50/month to $250/ month). Abbott's "new" drug, which had Novir as a significant component, remained unchanged in price. Novir was considered the better product for some AIDS patients. Because of the cost increase, these patients were forced to the cheaper, diluted Novir product called Kaletra." - Brent Hoadley, Ph.D., Too Profitable to Cure (Get the book.)

"The FTC said that unless the companies could show that the merger would not reduce competition in the baby-food industry, it would violate antitrust laws. Because an obvious purpose of the proposed merger was to eliminate competition between Heinz and Beech-Nut, the court said the merger would not be in the public interest, and blocked it. The court decision in this case makes interesting reading. It reveals, for example, how concentration in an industry leads to cooperation around certain matters that protect profits and why, as a result, baby foods look alike and are priced alike." - Marion Nestle, What to Eat (Get the book.)

"The antitrust division of the Justice Department moved to prosecute ITT for violating the antitrust laws. However, the prosecution did not take place and ITT was allowed to merge with Hartford. It was all settled out of court, in a secret arrangement in which ITT agreed to donate $400,000 to the Republican party." - Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (Get the book.)

"See friend of the court. antitrust legislation Laws passed in the United States, especially between 1890 and 1915, to prevent large business corporations, called trusts, from combining into monopolies in order to restrict competition. The laws were instituted to encourage free enterprise. The enforcement of antitrust laws has been inconsistent. While the Bell Telephone system was declared a monopoly and forced to break up, huge corporations continue to merge. appeals, court of See court of appeals. apportionment The allocation of seats in a legislature or of taxes according to a plan." - James Trefil, Joseph F. Kett, and E. D. Hirsch, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (Get the book.) "Sherman antitrust Act A federal law passed in 1890 that committed the American government to opposing monopolies. The law prohibits contracts, combinations, or conspiracies "in the restraint of trade or commerce." Under the authority of the Sherman antitrust Act, the federal government initiated suits against the Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company. (See trust busting." - James Trefil, Joseph F. Kett, and E. D. Hirsch, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (Get the book.)

"In sum, the FTC found evidence that Hatch-Waxman is regularly exploited to prevent generic competition, and it has taken antitrust action against several brand-name and generic drug companies that colluded to keep generic drugs off the market. It also criticized the use of bogus "citizen petitions" to slow the approval of generic drugs. Finally, it suggested changes to Hatch-Waxman that would curb the abuse—including limiting drug companies to one thirty-month stay per drug and prohibiting agreements between brand-name and generic companies to delay the entrance of generic drugs to market." - Marcia Angell, M.D., The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It (Get the book.)

"AMA's war on chiropractic to the Federal Trade Commission for antitrust action.3 The case centered on restraint of trade, a violation of the Sherman antitrust Act. The four chiropractors who brought the suit decided against seeking money damages because they didn't want to divert attention from the true issues of monopolistic practices and impairments to patient care. Fully 18 percent of hospital admissions, a very sizable market share, are for orthopedic and musculoskeletal disorders, precisely the conditions that chiropractors treat." - Kenny Ausubel, When Healing Becomes A Crime: The Amazing Story of the Hoxsey Cancer Clinics and the Return of Alternative Therapies (Get the book.) "The conviction marked the third time in the century that the AMA was found guilty of antitrust violations for conspiracy and restraint of trade. The medical association was first convicted in 1937 under Dr. Fishbein for trying to destroy an autonomous doctors' group applying cost-cutting health delivery and insurance in Washington, D.C. It was again found guilty in 1982 by the Federal Trade Commission—a decision upheld by the Supreme Court, just as the earlier conviction was. This time the verdict confirmed the AMA's decades-long, systematic violation of antitrust statutes." - Kenny Ausubel, When Healing Becomes A Crime: The Amazing Story of the Hoxsey Cancer Clinics and the Return of Alternative Therapies (Get the book.) "There are lingering effects of this conspiracy; the AMA has never acknowledged the lawlessness of its past conduct and in fact to this day maintains that it has always been in compliance with the antitrust laws."4 The AMA was forced to circulate the contrite Order of Injunction through medical journals, hospitals, and many other outlets, and to cease and desist from obstructing the professional rights of the chiropractic profession. The conviction marked the third time in the century that the AMA was found guilty of antitrust violations for conspiracy and restraint of trade." - Kenny Ausubel, When Healing Becomes A Crime: The Amazing Story of the Hoxsey Cancer Clinics and the Return of Alternative Therapies (Get the book.)

"Trusts are generally prohibited or restricted by antitrust legislation. (Compare monopoly.) trust busting Government activities aimed at breaking up monopolies and trusts. {See antitrust legislation.) tycoon Someone who has made a fortune in business, such as Cornelius Vanderbilt. unemployment compensation Short-term payments made to workers who have involuntarily lost their jobs. union See labor union. union shop A business or industry in which all new workers must join a labor union after a specified period of time. (See closed shop and right-to-work laws." - James Trefil, Joseph F. Kett, and E. D. Hirsch, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know (Get the book.)

"On that day, District Judge Susan Getzendanner found the American Medical Association (AMA) and fourteen associated parties guilty of waging a conspiracy against chiropractors to contain and eliminate them entirely in violation of the Sherman antitrust law. According to chiropractor Chester Wilk, D.C., who spearheaded the antitrust lawsuit, the fourteen litigators probably cost AMA at least $15 million. But even better, it exposed some of their propaganda methods for a later day." - Richard Leviton, Physician: Medicine and the Unsuspected Battle for Human Freedom (Get the book.)

"Sherman antitrust Act A federal law passed in 1890 that committed the American government to opposing monopolies. The law prohibits contracts, combinations, or conspiracies "in the restraint of trade or commerce." The Standard Oil Company and the American Tobacco Company were broken up under authority of the Sherman antitrust Act. (See trust busting." - E. D. Hirsch, The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Get the book.)

"Of all the legal accidents that have complicated or even doomed well-meaning attempts by providers to fix the health care delivery system, none is more paradoxical than the antitrust rulings as they relate to physicians. In 1975, the Supreme Court ruled in Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar that the "learned professions" are engaged in "trade or commerce" and therefore are not exempt from antitrust actions when they attempt to band together for the purposes of collective negotiation of their own payment rates." - J.D. Kleinke, Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S. Health Care System (Get the book.) "Goldfarb has become the cornerstone of physician antitrust law. Based on this precedent, physicians are free to charge as little or as much as they want, independent of each other, and attempts to do otherwise open them up to possible antitrust actions. But in actual practice, Goldfarb makes contract-based integration of fragmented physician practices tortuous and uncertain." - J.D. Kleinke, Oxymorons: The Myth of a U.S. Health Care System (Get the book.)

"Most people don't know that a lawsuit was filed regarding this obvious antitrust issue and the "big three" were found guilty! Corruption runs deep. In this case it was evidenced by the judge awarding the plaintiffs an insulting $1 in damages! That's right, just $1! The big three automakers obviously paid off the right people to make sure that there were no consequences to their illegal actions. Most recently, many of you have seen the movie The Insider or read the book about how for years the tobacco industry lied about their knowledge that the ingredients in cigarettes were highly addictive." - Kevin Trudeau, Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About (Get the book.)

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