A federal judge wants to hear from those opposing the Justice Department’s decision to greenlight CVS Health’s $69 billion acquisition of Hartford health insurer Aetna.
Although CVS closed its historic acquisition of Aetna in late November, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington D.C. has been reviewing the antitrust settlement DOJ agreed to with the companies. Merger settlements must be approved by a federal court in order to determine if the deal is in the public interest.
The Justice Department has defended its actions in recent months, but Leon during a brief hearing on Friday requested to hear additional comments from opponents of the deal in court sometime in May, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Leon, who is questioning whether the deal would hurt industry competition, said he could see the May hearing lasting a full week, the report said.
The deal has faced opposition from several industry organizations, including the nation’s largest physician group, the American Medical Association (AMA), the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York and the Medical Society of the State of New York, which both urged its state regulators to block the deal.
AMA, among others, have argued the combination would limit market competition for pharmacy benefit management services, health insurance and retail and specialty pharmacy.
Leon did not halt the combination when he began raising concerns about it in December, but CVS volunteered to keep certain assets separate while he mulls the DOJ settlement.
The judge, appointed by President George W. Bush, has been at odds with DOJ antitrust lawyers before.
Last year, Leon slammed the Justice Department’s opposition to AT&T Inc.’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner and approved the deal. DOJ then argued Leon committed “fundamental errors of economic logic and reasoning.”
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