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David A. Balto Biography

David Balto

David Balto is an antitrust lawyer in Washington, D.C. and has practiced antitrust law for over 20 years in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and private practice. At the FTC he was the Assistant Director for Policy and Evaluation in the Bureau of Competition and attorney advisor to Chairman Robert Pitofsky. In these positions he was a senior advisor in all aspects of the FTC's merger and non-merger enforcement program. He helped litigate the challenges to the Staples/Office Depot, Drug Wholesalers, and Heinz/Beechnut mergers, and the Intel monopolization case. Mr. Balto helped guide many of the FTC's seminal pharmaceutical and healthcare enforcement efforts, identifying and helping litigate major cases such as the challenges to patent settlement agreements and other exclusionary conduct. He was an advisor in many of the FTC's pharmaceutical merger enforcement cases, including Glaxo/Smithkline, Merck/Medco, Lilly/PCS and Ciba/Sandoz. He was liaison on competition issues with the FDA and Congress and advised several Congressional committees on pharmaceutical competition and Hatch-Waxman reform.

Mr. Balto is a prolific author on antitrust, consumer protection, financials services, and health care competition. He is Vice-Chair of the ABA Antitrust Section's Federal Civil Enforcement committee.

Mr. Balto received his B.A. from the University of Minnesota, and his J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.

Updated January 4, 2024