Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS NEWS: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission will not block GSK-Novartis deal, (Feb 20, 2015)

By Dan Selcke, J.D.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will not stand in the way of a three-part deal between international pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Novartis, the Commission announced today.

Under the deal, GSK will acquire Novartis’ global human vaccines business, except for the influenza vaccine business. Also, GSK and Novartis will combine their global consumer health business in a new joint venture entity. Finally, Novartis will acquire certain oncology products from GSK.

Any of the three transactions could have raised concerns about competition, but GSK and Novartis gave undertakings to the ACCC and the European Commission (EC) that allayed any concerns. As a result of undertakings to the ACCC, GSK will divest its Meningococcal vaccine products in Australia while Novartis will divest its smoking cessation products in the same region. Both companies supply Meningococcal vaccines and over-the-counter smoking cessation products to Australia, and this undertaking should prevent anticompetitive behavior.

As result of the undertaking to the EC, Novartis will divest, on a global basis, two in-development drugs designed to treat advanced melanoma. Once completed, these drugs would likely have competed with existing GSK products.

“The ACCC was satisfied, taking into account the undertakings, that each of the three proposed acquisitions was unlikely to substantially lessen competition,” said ACCC Commissioner Dr. Jill Walker.

Companies: GlaxoSmithKline plc., Novartis AG

News: AcquisitionsMergers Antitrust