FTC finds Grifols' US acquisition anticompetitive

Following a public comment period, the US Federal Trade Commission has approved a final order that settles charges that Catalan pharma-chemical company Grifols’ (Nasdaq: GRFS) $286 million acquisition of USA-based Biotest Pharmaceuticals is anticompetitive and violates federal antitrust law.

According to the complaint, the acquisition as originally proposed would have given Grifols a monopoly  in the markets for collection of human blood plasma in Lincoln, Nebraska, Augusta, Georgia, and Youngstown, Ohio. The settlement requires Grifols to divest its plasma collection centers in these three cities to KedPlasma, a subsidiary of Kedrion Biopharma. Kedrion Biopharma is a leading manufacturer of protein products and is the fifth-largest producer of plasma proteins worldwide.

Also HBIG competition concerns