Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has been boosted by the news that regulators in Europe have approved the Israeli’s firm’s 3.63 billion euro acquisition of German generic drugmaker Ratiopharm, conditional on the sell-off of products in a couple of minor markets.
The European Commission noted that the approval is conditional upon the divestment of 15 products in the Netherlands and one in Hungary. It found that “competition concerns would arise for a number of finished pharmaceuticals, although not on the Dutch generics market overall”, adding that the products concerned are used to treat conditions such as anaemia, hypertension, asthma and gout as well as inflammation and pain.
The Commission also found that “very high combined market shares for the painkiller tramadol in Hungary, together with the existence of a strong originator brand for Teva, would raise concerns”. The latter has offered to divest the Ratiopharm products and the EC says that “in view of these commitments, and following a market test”, it has concluded that “the transaction would no longer raise competition concerns”.
Teva noted that it has made “certain limited commitments, which are anticipated to have only a marginal effect on the combined companies’ activities” and now plans to close the transaction in the near future. The Ratiopharm link-up was approved by Canadian antitrust regulators a couple of days ago.
