Roche sets new dead­line for Spark ac­qui­si­tion as di­vesti­ture spec­u­la­tion brews

To no­body’s sur­prise at this point, Roche and Spark have ex­tend­ed the of­fer­ing pe­ri­od of their $4.3 bil­lion buy­out deal for an­oth­er month.

Just days ago the UK Com­pe­ti­tion and Mar­kets Au­thor­i­ty of­fi­cial­ly sought pub­lic com­ment on the Swiss phar­ma gi­ant’s com­pet­i­tive po­si­tion if the deal goes through. As FTC reg­u­la­tors si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly con­duct their own re­view, an­a­lysts are in­creas­ing­ly con­vinced that Roche will be forced to aban­don a he­mo­phil­ia gene ther­a­py be­ing de­vel­oped by Spark in or­der to con­sum­mate the ac­qui­si­tion.

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