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former FTC Conference Center
601 New Jersey Avenue, NW Washington DC 20001

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Event Description

The Federal Trade Commission hosted a one-day public workshop to examine competition and consumer protection issues in the pet medications industry. The quality and cost of pet medications is an important pocketbook issue for many consumers. In 2011, 62 percent of U.S. households owned a pet, and Americans spent an estimated $50 billion on their pets, including nearly $7 billion for prescription and over-the-counter pet medications.

The workshop brought together consumers, veterinarians, business representatives, economists, lawyers, academics, and other interested parties to consider how current industry distribution and other business practices affect consumer choice and price competition for pet medications; the ability of consumers to obtain written, portable prescriptions that they can fill wherever they choose; and the ability of consumers to verify the safety and efficacy of pet medications that they purchase. The workshop examined ways to inform and empower consumers to obtain the highest quality and most cost-effective healthcare products for their pets. The workshop also examined the extent to which recent changes to restricted distribution and prescription portability practices in the contact lens industry might yield lessons applicable to the pet medications industry.

Webcast and Transcript

The workshop webcast videos are available for viewing (under Video, below). Viewers may want to review the panelist slide presentations (under Event Materials, below) as they watch the videos. A transcript of the workshop is available as well (under Transcripts, below).

For more information contact:

Stephanie Wilkinson (Conference Organizer)
Office of Policy Planning
petmedsworkshop@ftc.gov
202-326-2084

  • Request for Comments

    The last day to submit a public comment was November 1, 2012.

FTC Privacy Policy

Under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) or other laws, we may be required to disclose to outside organizations the information you provide when you pre-register. The Commission will consider all timely and responsive public comments, whether filed in paper or electronic form, and as a matter of discretion, we make every effort to remove home contact information for individuals from the public comments before posting them on the FTC website.

The FTC Act and other laws we administer permit the collection of your pre-registration contact information and the comments you file to consider and use in this proceeding as appropriate.  Under the Freedom of Information Act or other laws, we may be required to disclose to outside organizations the information you provide when you pre-register.  For additional information, including routine uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see the Commission’s Privacy Act system for public records and comprehensive privacy policy.

This event will be open to the public and may be photographed, videotaped, webcast, or otherwise recorded.  By participating in this event, you are agreeing that your image — and anything you say or submit — may be posted indefinitely at ftc.gov or on one of the Commission's publicly available social media sites.