FTC sues phar­ma da­ta gi­ant IQVIA to block pur­chase — and po­ten­tial ad­ver­tis­ing strong­hold

The FTC filed a law­suit on Mon­day to block IQVIA from buy­ing adtech firm Pro­pel Me­dia. The agency is mov­ing to stop the sale to pre­vent the con­sol­i­da­tion of pro­gram­mat­ic ad­ver­tis­ing for pre­scrip­tion drugs, it said in a press re­lease.

It al­so aims to re­move any in­cen­tive IQVIA might have “to with­hold key in­for­ma­tion to pre­vent ri­val com­pa­nies and po­ten­tial en­trants from ef­fec­tive­ly com­pet­ing.”

The FTC is seek­ing a tem­po­rary re­strain­ing or­der and pre­lim­i­nary in­junc­tion in fed­er­al court to stop the sale, au­tho­rized by a com­mis­sion vote of 3-0.

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