Grifols must divest assets to complete acquisition of Talecris, says USA's FTC

The USA’s Federal Trade Commission will require Spanish firm Grifols (GRLS: MC), a manufacturer of plasma-derived drugs, to make significant divestitures as part of a settlement allowing Grifols to acquire leading American plasma-derived drug manufacturer Talecris Biotherapeutics (Nasdaq: TLCR).

Grifols launched a $3.4 billion takeover of Talecris last year (The Pharma Letter June 7, 2010), which was later referred to the FTC, which had previously blocked a $3.1 billion deal between the US firm and Australia’s CSL on anti-trust concerns (TPL June 9, 2009). Grifols is Europe’s largest maker of blood-plasma products, and the addition of Talecris would give it a bigger share of the $7 billion US market for blood-based infusions, where it will compete with Baxter International as well as CSL.

The settlement is the latest FTC action taken to preserve competition and protect US consumers from higher health care costs. It resolves FTC charges that Grifols’ proposed acquisition of Talecris would be anticompetitive and would violate federal antitrust laws. As part of the settlement, Grifols will sell the Talecris fractionation facility in Melville, New York, and Grifols’ plasma collection centers in Mobile, Alabama, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Kedrion SpA. Kedrion is a manufacturer of plasma-derived products in Europe and other markets, and will be a new entrant in the U.S. plasma-derived products industry. Grifols also will manufacture three plasma-derived products for Kedrion for several years under a manufacturing agreement.