Two U.S. federal government departments recently issued a series of guidelines for their handling of mergers and acquisitions in a draft that has provoked both support and opposition from observers. Barry Nigro of the George Washington University School of Law said he is concerned that the presumption that a transaction is necessarily anticompetitive will prompt litigation over that presumption and thus bog down the process of reviewing these transactions.
The proposed $875 million acquisition of Cook Medical Inc.’s reproductive health business by the Coopercompanies Inc. has been scotched, a development lauded by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in a statement describing the proposed transaction as anticompetitive. However, the FTC statement also pointed to cooperation from authorities in both the U.K. and Australia as critical in forcing the abandonment of the transaction, a signal that such cooperation is likely to grow in the future.
Following a comment-and-review process waylaid by the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. FTC is finalizing its revised guides on the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising.
Boston Scientific Corp., has announced that it has abandoned its plans to acquire M.I. Tech Co. Ltd., of South Korea after opposition was announced by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC lauded the news with a May 24 statement that cited the agency’s cooperation with other national regulatory authorities as a factor in scotching the proposed acquisition, the second time in recent weeks that government agencies have grounded mergers and acquisitions in the med-tech space.
The U.S. FTC’s unprecedented antitrust challenge to Amgen Inc.’s $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics plc, could be a disruptor to biotech investment if the agency is victorious, some analysts are warning. “With essentially zero commercial overlap [between the two companies], this deal would seem to be a slam dunk under long-established antitrust considerations,” said Christopher Raymond, a senior research analyst with Piper Sandler Research.
Four U.S. government agencies have issued an advisory regarding bias in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other automated systems, the scope of which includes software products that “make decisions.” The four agencies have pledged to use their enforcement powers to “protect individuals’ rights regardless of whether legal violations occur through traditional means or advanced technologies,” all of which sends a signal to developers of medical software that the FDA is not the only federal government agency that will be looking over their shoulder to evaluate the risk of bias in those algorithms.
The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down a broadly unanimous decision that allows the targets of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement action to appeal that action to federal district court prior to the conclusion of the agency’s review or enforcement process. The outcome could prove a boon to life science companies that may now challenge FTC actions against mergers and acquisitions prior to the conclusion of that action, a point at which the company’s options have narrowed drastically.
The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down a broadly unanimous decision that allows the targets of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement action to appeal that action to federal district court prior to the conclusion of the agency’s review or enforcement process. The outcome could prove a boon to life science companies that may now challenge FTC actions against mergers and acquisitions prior to the conclusion of that action, a point at which the company’s options have narrowed drastically.
Mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. have been under tremendous regulatory pressure over the past two years, a trend that seems likely to continue for the foreseeable future. However, Lina Khan, chairwoman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), said in a March 27 public forum that the agency will not wait for airtight cases to pursue legal remedies in part because the perfect case does not always arise, but also because the courts can be provoked into validating a novel legal theory even if the court does not ultimately side with the FTC.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released its annual premerger notification report, this one for fiscal year 2021, during which more than 3,400 transactions were reported under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HRS Act). Roughly 17% of these were valued at more than $1 billion, but the FTC is facing bad publicity with the resignation of the sole Republican member of the commission, Christine Wilson, who charged FTC chairwoman Lina Khan with abuse of power.
