Schering-Plough has completed its 11 billion-euro acquisition of Organon BioSciences from the Dutch firm Akzo Nobel, some eight months after the deal was announced.
The US firm has been able to sign off the purchase having received approval for the transaction earlier this week from the US Federal Trade Commission. The deal was given the green light by the European Commission in October and for its money S-P also gets Intervet, an animal health business, Nobilon, a human vaccine development unit, and Diosynth, a third-party manufacturing operation.
S-P’s chief executive Fred Hassan claimed that “the promise of this combination is profound” as it creates “a powerful science and technology platform. He added that Schering-Plough’s late-stage pipeline has also been boosted “with five additional promising Phase III compounds”. These include asenapine for the treatment of schizophrenia and acute mania bipolar disorder, a new fertility hormone called corifollitropin alfa and sugammadex, for the reversal of neuromuscular blockade used as part of general anaesthesia during surgery.
Organon products that will make an immediate contribution to S-P’s coffers include its range of contraceptives (notably NuvaRing and Implanon) and the infertility treatment Puregon/Follistim (follitropin beta).
