Report: U.S. may invoke antitrust law to keep medical supplies available amid pandemic

U.S. officials are reportedly set to invoke a law that would protect companies from antitrust regulations to keep medical supplies available during pandemics.

The Associated Press reported that the government began formal discussions with private industry representatives yesterday, the subject of those discussions centering around a five-year agreement that would ensure supplies of protective materials, medical equipment, medicine and vaccines.

According to the report, the agreement involves a provision of the Defense Production Act that President Trump invoked recently in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The provision enables competitive businesses and the government to discuss price and supply without flouting antitrust regulations, Federal Emergency Management Agency senior official Joel Doolin told the AP.

Over the course of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there have been numerous reports of equipment shortages and insufficient supplies as healthcar…

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Report: New Medtronic CEO challenges Trump on ‘reshoring’

Geoff Martha, CEO of Medtronic

New Medtronic (NYSE:MDT) CEO Geoff Martha openly disagreed yesterday with President Donald Trump’s mission to bring formerly U.S.-based companies back to this country, according to a report in the Irish Times.

Medtronic, which maintains a U.S. headquarters in Fridley, Minn., bought Dublin-based Covidien for $50 billion in 2015 and moved its global headquarters to Ireland in a move critics cast as an attempt to avoid higher U.S. taxes. In the wake of distribution and supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has been calling for formerly U.S.-based companies to come home.

Martha said such “reshoring” is not the answer, according to the Irish Times article. “We all recognize that supply chains are globalized,” Martha told the newspaper. “It is not just where you manufacture. Take our ventilators which we make in Galway, for exampl…

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