EC waives Takeda's commitment to divest Shire's pipeline compound SHP647

The European Commission has waived, under the EU Merger Regulation, the commitments made by Takeda Pharmaceutical (TYO: 4502) to obtain clearance of its acquisition of Shire.

The Commission approved the $64 billion acquisition of Shire by Takeda on in November 2018, subject to the divestment of the biologic drug, code-named SHP 647, under development by Shire to treat inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD).

IBD is a lifelong autoimmune disease that involve inflammation of the digestive tract. Biologic drugs are typically prescribed after the failure of conventional therapies, such as corticosteroids and immunosuppressants.