An­oth­er big bio­phar­ma merg­er runs in­to an­oth­er snag at the FTC. What now?

It’s Ab­b­Vie’s turn to get hit with a dread­ed sec­ond re­quest for in­for­ma­tion from the FTC re­gard­ing its $63 bil­lion megamerg­er with Al­ler­gan. 

Right on the heels of the lat­est de­lay for the Roche/Spark tie-up, the FTC has some un­fin­ished busi­ness with Ab­b­Vie, which has its eyes on Al­ler­gan’s lu­cra­tive Botox fran­chise.

There is, of course, no word on what the lat­est FTC in­quiry is all about, but the ex­perts say every sec­ond re­quest comes with an odds-on de­mand — run­ning at 80% — for a di­vesti­ture to sat­is­fy an­titrust con­cerns.

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