Markets Wired

Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order settling charges that Bristol-Myers Squibb Company’s proposed $74 billion acquisition of Celgene Corporation would violate federal antitrust law.

According to the complaint, which was first announced in November 2019, the proposed acquisition would likely harm consumers in the U.S. market for treatments taken orally for moderate-to-severe psoriasis.

In the largest divestiture that the FTC or the U.S. Department of Justice has ever required in a merger enforcement matter, Bristol-Myers Squibb will divest to Amgen, Inc., for $13.4 billion, Celgene’s Otezla—the most popular oral treatment in the United States for moderate-to-severe psoriasis.

The Commission vote to approve the final order was 3-2. Commissioners Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter voted no.

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