US: Bristol-Myers Squibb wins antitrust approval to buy Celgene

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Celgene have won US antitrust approval for their merger on the condition that they sell Celgene’s psoriasis drug Otezla, reported Reuters.

Bristol-Myers Squibb stated the decision meant it had all the needed regulatory approvals and would close the acquisition on Wednesday, November 20. 

Amgen has agreed to buy Celgene’s Otezla business, the company said in a statement. The Otezla sale was valued at US$13.4 billion.

Bristol-Myers Squibb announced in January it would buy Celgene in a cash-and-stock deal for about US$74 billion, combining two of the world’s largest cancer drug businesses in the biggest pharmaceutical deal ever.

The proposed divestiture is the largest that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the US Department of Justice have ever required in a merger enforcement matter, the FTC said in its statement. 

“The Commission has ordered BMS to divest Otezla to preserve BMS’s incentive to continue developing its own oral product for treating moderate-to-severe psoriasis,” FTC Chairman Joseph Simons said in a statement.

Full Content: Reuters

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