Despite the threatening rhetoric, the early years of the Biden Administration largely followed previous regimes with respect to antitrust enforcement in the life sciences space. Pharmaceutical transactions in particular encounters the expected amount of agency scrutiny, with most proceeding without an extended investigation and, in contrast to deals in the…
The third quarter in the life sciences space saw notable developments in significant agency enforcement actions: The FTC abandoned its pursuit of a novel theory and settled its Amgen/Horizon lawsuit 10 days before the scheduled preliminary injunction hearing. As detailed below, the settlement is fairly modest in scope and embraces…
Arman Oruc joined the Bloomberg Intelligence podcast to share his views on the FTC, and its impact on M&A for the pharma and biotech industry. Listen to the podcast here.
The second quarter saw significant enforcement and dealmaking in the life sciences space. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced its attempt to block Amgen/Horizon, the first such challenge to a life science transaction since 2009, and issued a second request in Pfizer’s proposed $43 billion acquisition of Seagen. In contrast,…
While a number of factors suggest that deal activity, including those with material antitrust issues, will increase throughout 2023, recent enforcement activity could potentially chill the largest transactions from moving forward. But FTC’s filing of a complaint to block Amgen/Horizon may signal a revived enforcement push for large transactions. Read…
M&A activity in the life sciences space proceeded largely as usual in 2022, with most transactions receiving expected levels of agency scrutiny and closing in the normal course despite aggressive rhetoric from new leadership at both agencies. Notably, the government has thus far not applied more novel theories of antitrust…
The third quarter in the life sciences space showed that business is generally proceeding as usual, with large pharma players successfully acquiring or licensing in clinical stage assets without running into antitrust delays. That said, even these inherently procompetitive deals appear to be receiving at least some attention from the…
Recent merger enforcement in the pharmaceutical space continues to follow traditional principles and modes of analysis. However, with a new 3-to-2 Democratic majority, it is increasingly likely that the Federal Trade Commission’s enforcement actions will reflect more aggressive theories that were previously advocated only in dissenting statements. Recent behavioural enforcement…
Although the second quarter did not feature any life sciences enforcement action by the FTC, there was plenty of news in and around the space. The FTC held a detailed “virtual workshop” as part of its pharmaceutical merger task force and news emerged of a potential Merck-Seagen deal that could…
Goodwin Antitrust partner, Arman Oruc will be speaking on a timely panel “Dealing in an era of fast evolving innovation: Deals, M&A, and Alliances,” at the KPMG 2022 Global Life Sciences Summit this Wednesday, May 18 at 9AM ET. To attend, please register here: https://bit.ly/39jhViE.
