EU Approves Teva Takeover of Allergan Generics Unit
10 Mars 2016 - 4:10PM
Dow Jones News
BRUSSELS—The European Union on Thursday approved Teva
Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. $40.5 billion takeover of Allergan
PLC's generics unit on the condition the companies divest several
assets.
The European Commission, the bloc's antitrust authority, said
the companies would also have to divest all the marketed molecules
as well as the molecules currently being developed, which create
competition concerns in the bloc, the EU said.
The commission said it had had concerns the merged entity would
have faced insufficient competition from the remaining rivals for a
number of generic drugs, especially in the U.K. Ireland and
Iceland.
"I am glad we have found a solution that allows this takeover to
proceed, while ensuring that competition will continue in all
European countries," said the EU's antitrust chief Margrethe
Vestager. "Effective competition between generic pharmaceutical
manufacturers is essential to drive down prices for patients and
healthcare systems."
The Israeli company announced last July it would buy the
Allergan unit, in a deal that will combine Teva—the world's largest
generic-drug company by sales—with the third-largest competitor in
the market.
The acquisition will give Teva increased scale in the hotly
competitive generic-drug market, and an opportunity to pursue
further cost reductions that could help it cope with the end of a
wave of big patent expirations.
Dublin-based Allergan in November agreed to merge with Pfizer
Inc., in a deal worth more than $150 billion that would create the
world's biggest drugmaker and move one of the top names in
corporate America to a foreign country.
Write to Natalia Drozdiak at natalia.drozdiak@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 10, 2016 09:55 ET (14:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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