FTC staff signs off on Roche $4.3B deal for Spark — re­port

Roche is one step clos­er to reg­u­la­to­ry en­dorse­ment — in the form of an FTC staff rec­om­men­da­tion — to buy Spark Ther­a­peu­tics with­out any as­set sales, ac­cord­ing to a re­port by the Capi­tol Fo­rum on Thurs­day.

Con­cerns that the Swiss drug­mak­er may be forced to aban­don a he­mo­phil­ia gene ther­a­py be­ing de­vel­oped by Spark in or­der to con­sum­mate the $4.3 bil­lion ac­qui­si­tion, erupt­ed af­ter the Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion (FTC) is­sued a sec­ond re­quest for in­for­ma­tion in June. A sec­ond re­quest is rare and typ­i­cal­ly au­gurs a di­vesti­ture de­mand, ac­cord­ing to an analy­sis by Mizuho Se­cu­ri­ties an­a­lyst Difei Yang last month.

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