David Balto

Senior Fellow

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David Balto is a Senior Fellow at American Progress focusing on competition policy, intellectual property law, and health care. He has over 20 years of experience as an antitrust attorney in the private sector, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission. He is nationally known for his expertise in competition policy in high tech industries, semiconductors, health care, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, media, and financial services. He regularly provides advice on mergers, strategic alliances, and joint ventures.

From 1995-2001 he was the policy director of the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission and attorney advisor to Chairman Robert Pitofsky. In these leadership roles Mr. Balto was a senior advisor in developing competition policy and identifying key enforcement initiatives. He helped draft guidelines involving intellectual property, joint ventures, and health care. He played a key role in several litigated cases, including the challenges to the Staples/Office Depot and Heinz/Beechnut mergers, the Intel monopolization case, and the challenges to anticompetitive conduct by several pharmaceutical companies. He is the only person to twice win the FTC’s award for outstanding scholarship and won the FTC's award for distinguished service, the highest award given a staff attorney.

Mr. Balto has authored more than 60 articles about competition policy focusing on intellectual property, health care, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and mergers. He regularly testifies before Congress, state legislatures, the FTC, and DOJ. He has authored numerous amicus briefs for consumer groups in seminal antitrust cases.