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FTC Narrowly Okays AbbVie/Allergan Merger As Dissenter Slams Divestitures To AstraZeneca, Nestlé

 
• By Brenda Sandburg

Commissioner Chopra says candy maker Nestlé cannot take Allergan’s place in the market and AstraZeneca would get a windfall without paying anything for a valuable drug development project. AbbVie/Allergan must divest enzyme replacement therapies Zenpap and Viokace to Nestlé and investigational IL-23 inhibitor brazikumab to AstraZeneca. 

Close-up Of King Chess Pieces On Wooden Blocks With Mergers And Acquisitions
FTC Commissioners disagree on adequacy of AbbVie/Allergan divestitures

The US Federal Trade Commission once again was sharply divided on a pharma merger, voting 3-2 to permit AbbVie Inc.'s $63bn acquisition of Allergan PLC to go forward on the condition that they divest three drugs. But Democratic Commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter criticized the divestitures as inadequate and Chopra harshly objected to the divestiture of two products to non-drug company Nestle SA.

On the evening of 5 May, the FTC announced the proposed consent agreement that requires AbbVie and Allergan to divest the pancrelipase products Zenpep and Viokace, treatments for exocrine...

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