Federal Trade Commission commissioner Rohit Chopra testifies on Capitol Hill (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

FTC clears Bris­tol-My­ers’ $74B deal to buy Cel­gene — but Dems sig­nal a po­ten­tial hard shift against Big Phar­ma M&A

Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb’s record $74 bil­lion takeover of Cel­gene is a done deal. And it will all be over — ex­cept for the lin­ger­ing com­plaints from die-hard Cel­gene in­vestors — on Wednes­day.

Like much else that’s go­ing on in Wash­ing­ton these days, the vote among the 5 FTC com­mis­sion­ers split along par­ty lines, with the 3 Re­pub­li­cans vot­ing to clear the way and the 2 De­moc­rats steamed over what they see as a ma­jor M&A move that will lessen com­pe­ti­tion and in­no­va­tion. And that split has big im­pli­ca­tions for the M&A side of the busi­ness if the Dems take the White House in 2020.

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