Henry Liu

As the Federal Trade Commission looks to adopt a more aggressive approach to reviewing mergers, its newly appointed director of the Bureau of Competition is already showing he takes that mission seriously. That doesn’t always mean blocking acquisitions: After initially challenging Amgen’s $28 billion buyout of Horizon, the FTC and Amgen ultimately reached a settlement allowing the deal to move forward after Amgen agreed not to bundle its drugs with two key Horizon drugs or to pursue other rebating tactics the agency deemed concerning. The past few months also saw health tech company IQVIA forced to hit pause on its plans to merge with health care advertiser DeepIntent, as well as recent moves from the FTC to block health system acquisitions in North Carolina and California that it said would drive up health care costs.