Actavis-Allergan Merger Receives European Commission Blessing

Actavis’s planned acquisition of Allergan is awaiting closure after the European Commission signed off on the $66 billion purchase.

Approval from the European Commission satisfies the final regulatory hurdle to closing the pending acquisition, Actavis said Monday. The merger was previously cleared by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission.

Earlier this month, shareholders from both companies agreed to the purchase, which will see Actavis take on Allergan’s name for its corporate identity and acquire the brandmaker’s portfolio. That lineup includes the blockbuster Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA), Restasis (cyclosporine ophthalmic emulsion) and Lumigan (bimatoprost ophthalmic solution).

Ireland-based Actavis will continue to use its current name in some geographic regions and for some product portfolios. While the new firm’s generic drug business will sink to about 27 percent of overall revenues, Actavis has said it will remain committed to generic drugs.

Annual branded sales of the new company are expected to nearly double Actavis’s current $7.8 billion to $16.6 billion.

Going forward, the questions hovering over the merger are where the approximately $2 billion in projected cost-savings the companies have identified will come from and whether the new firm can live up to a planned branding as a growth-product company, which requires continuously developing new drugs, Matthew Weinberg of The Weinberg Group said. — Bryan Koenig