FTC approves final order on GSK/Novartis cancer drugs deal

9 April 2015

Following a public comment period, the USA’s Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order settling charges that Swiss pharma major Novartis’ (NOVN: VX) $16 billion acquisition of UK peer GlaxoSmithKline’s (LSE: GSK) portfolio of cancer-treatment drugs likely would be anticompetitive.

Under the order first announced earlier (The Pharma Letter February 24), Novartis has agreed to divest all assets related to its BRAF- and MEK-inhibitor drugs, currently in development, to Boulder, Colorado-based Array BioPharma.

According to the complaint, since Novartis and GSK are two of a small number of companies holding BRAF or MEK inhibitors either on the market or in development, and two of three marketing or developing a combination product for melanoma, it would breach competition requirements.

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