Sigh of relief as Bristol-Myers finally completes buy of Celgene

After a many-months saga of anti-trust regulatory delays and a requirement for a substantial divestment, US pharma major Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) late Wednesday announced that it has at last completed its $74 billion acquisition of biotech firm Celgene Corp (Nasdaq: CELG) following the receipt of regulatory approval from all government authorities required by the merger agreement announced on April 12 this year.

The length of time taken for the transaction to complete is in part an indication of the more stringent consideration of competition authorities, notably the USA’s Federal Trade Commission, which itself admitted that its requirement for the divestment of Celgene’s Otezla (apremilast) to Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) for $13.4 billion was the largest that the FTC or the US Department of Justice have ever required in a merger enforcement matter.

Another anti-trust merger approval that that is pending is that of Roche’s proposed $4.3 billion takeover of Spark Therapeutics (Nasdaq: ONCE) that was first announced in February this year.