FTC, Amgen reach deal to allow $28 billion pharmaceutical merger

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The Federal Trade Commission dropped its lawsuit to block Amgen’s merger with Horizon Therapeutics, reaching a deal it said would prevent anticompetitive behavior.

FTC filed suit in May to, which was the biggest proposed biotech deal in 2022, predicting it would lessen competition for drugs that treat two rare diseases. It was the antitrust agency’s first challenge to a pharmaceutical merger in more than a decade, signaling the Biden administration’s more

as it seeks to combat high prescription drug prices. Ending the challenge could be a sign that other pending pharmaceutical mergers will face less antitrust risk, according to Wall Street analysts.of cancer-drug company Seagen, Matt Phipps, an analyst at William Blair, wrote in a research note Friday.

FTC’s attempt to block the Amgen-Horizon deal surprised some analysts, as the two companies don’t directly compete. “Stop the insanity,” Jay Olson, an analyst at Oppenheimer, wrote in a note to clients last week after the FTC indicated it wouldFarrar, an FTC spokesperson, said in an email that “defendants don’t settle ‘ludicrous’ lawsuits, and the FTC got extensive, binding agreements on all the concerns we raised in our complaint,” calling the settlement a win for “Americans who need access to affordable medicine.

The FTC’s concerns centered on two drugs made by Horizon, Tepezza and Krystexxa, which treat thyroid eye disease and gout, respectively. The commissionthat Amgen, with its larger portfolio of drugs, had both the clout and the motivation to protect the “monopoly positions” of those two Horizon drugs. Amgen denied it had any intention of bundling the Horizon drugs with its own in negotiations with insurers and pharmacy-benefit managers.

 

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FTC allows Amgen to move forward with $27.8 billion Horizon Therapeutics acquisitionThe FTC had filed a lawsuit in May seeking to block the acquisition, arguing that the deal would 'stifle competition' in the pharmaceutical industry.
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