How Corporate Power Creates Ph*rm*cy Deserts

Former FTC commissioner Alvaro Bedoya will be speaking about his time on the Federal Trade Commission, meeting people in urban and rural communities across the country and seeing first hand how monopolies impact independent pharmacies and create Ph*rm*cy deserts. As part of his work, he helped coordinate the Commission’s revival of the Robinson-Patman Act, a long-dormant antitrust law that was passed to give small sellers a level playing field against retail giants.Mr. Bedoya will give a brief talk, which will be followed by a Q&A.

Registration is required. Pettiruti Lounge is in the Stephen Roberts Campus Center. Please show a Brown ID or government issued ID to enter.

This event is part of National Public Health Week. This event is sponsored by the People, Place and Health Collective and the Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research at the Brown University School of Public Health. Additional support provided by the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at the Watson School for International and Public Affairs.

This event is part of the People, Place and Health Collective’s seminar series: The 1st. This series (named after the First Amendment) brings together speakers from across the United States to talk about issues in public health in a time when there is unprecedented attacks on science and academic freedom.

Bio:

Alvaro Bedoya is a Senior Advisor at the American Economic Liberties Project. He was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission in May 2022 and served in that role until his resignation in June 2025. At the FTC, Commissioner Bedoya focused on how antitrust law could do more to protect workers, farmers, and small businesses. He took a special interest in the challenges facing small-town grocers and pharmacists, and helped coordinate the Commission’s revival of the Robinson-Patman Act, a long-dormant antitrust law that was passed to give small sellers a level playing field against retail giants.

Before his confirmation, Bedoya served as chief counsel to Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, and helped him establish the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Privacy upon its creation in 2010. After the Senate, he founded the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, which conducted in-depth research into face surveillance and the surveillance of religious and ethnic minorities. His essay on the subject, “Privacy as Civil Right,” is featured in textbooks used in U.S. law schools.

A naturalized citizen born in Peru and raised in upstate New York, Bedoya also co-founded the Esperanza Education Fund, a college scholarship for immigrant students that is blind to immigration status, and that has awarded over $1 million in scholarships since 2009. He also served on the boards of CASA and The Hispanic Bar Association of Washington, D.C.

His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, and lives with his wife and children in Rockville, Maryland.

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