
FTC to Roche: OK, go ahead and complete your $4.3B Spark buyout — we're convinced now this isn't anticompetitive
After putting Roche through multiple delays during a 10-month review, the FTC has determined that Roche isn’t spending $4.3 billion to buy Spark so it can destroy a potential competitor, or use it to replace one of their new blockbusters. And the pharma giant followed up soon after to say that it had 60.4% of Spark’s stock and will formally wrap the buyout today.
The FTC announced Monday evening that the commissioners voted 5 to 0 to close the investigation after determining the evidence “did not indicate that Roche would have the incentive to delay or terminate Spark’s developmental effort for its hemophilia A gene therapy, or that the acquisition would affect Roche’s incentives regarding [its hemophilia treatment drug] Hemlibra.”
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