Teva Pharmaceuticals and Ivax could witness a delay to their marriage, after the US Federal Trade Commission requested additional information relating to their merger. However, while no more details about the request were revealed, Teva and Ivax do not believe that they will see their union pushed back.

In July, Teva revealed its plans to buy Ivax for $7.4 billion dollars [[26/07/05a]], propelling it back to the top spot in the world generics league table just months after Switzerland’s Novartis announced its own plans to become the world’s biggest maker of copycat drugs [[21/02/05b]].

The impact of this latest news is to extend the waiting period by 30 days until after the companies have satisfied the FTC’s request, but both Teva and Ivax say they continue to expect the transaction to complete in late 2005, early 2006.

A special shareholders’ meeting will take place on October 27 to vote on the deal.