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What Do FTC’s Aggressive Moves Against Biopharma Portend For 2024?

 
• By Brenda Sandburg

The Federal Trade Commission blocked or restricted several deals last year, broadening what it considers to be anticompetitive transactions. Stakeholders are looking to see if the agency will bring similar cases this year and what remedies it will seek to allow deals to go forward.

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US Federal Trade Commission derailed or restricted several transactions last year. • Source: Shutterstock

The US Federal Trade Commission took aim at the biopharma industry last year with a series of aggressive enforcement actions in the M&A arena. For the first time it challenged a pharma merger based on a novel theory of anticompetitive harm. It also succeeded in terminating a licensing deal involving a single asset, unraveled a company’s reacquisition of an entity it had spun out, and blocked a merger of leaders in programmatic advertising to health care providers.

These actions have changed the merger landscape for companies, which are likely to face further hurdles this year as the...

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