Yahoo Finance FTC May Reportedly Block Amgen's (AMGN) $28B Horizon Buyout
Shares of Horizon Therapeutics HZNP were down 15% in after-market trading on May 15 after multiple third-party articles stated that the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) is preparing to file a lawsuit to block the company's sale to Amgen AMGN.
Per a Bloomberg article, the FTC believes that the acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics by Amgen is likely to hurt innovation and slow the pace of drug development. A separate article by Capital Forum reported that the FTC’s close door meeting on May 12 may have been potentially about Amgen/Horizon Thera peutics transaction.
The above articles also mentioned that when they contacted Amgen for comments on the above news, it stated that it will provide “appropriate updates” once more information is available.
In the year so far, Horizon Therapeutics’ shares have declined 1.4% compared with the industry’s 6.3% fall.
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Reports of a potential lawsuit by the FTC came after Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote to the regulator in late January 2023 expressing her concerns about pharmaceutical deals including the Amgen purchase of Horizon Therapeutics. Per the Senator, both Amgen and Horizon Therapeutics have been engaged in “brazen price increases on drugs that face little or no competition”.
Last December, Amgen announced that it will acquire Horizon Therapeutics for $116.50 per share in cash or $27.8 billion. The acquisition will help Amgen add a complementary portfolio of rare disease drugs like Tepezza, Krystexxa and Uplizna to its broad and diversified portfolio and should be accretive to the bottom line by 2024. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of June.
Tepezza is approved for treating thyroid eye disease. Krystexxa is used in adults to help reduce the signs and symptoms of gout that are not controlled by other treatments. Uplizna is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) who are anti-aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody positive.
Earlier this March, Pfizer PFE announced that it has offered to acquire Seagen SGEN for $229 per share in cash, which adds up to a total enterprise value of approximately $43.0 billion. Shares of Seagen also fell 3% in after-market hours on May 15, likely due to investors’ concerns that the FTC may look into the Pfizer/Seagen acquisition deal as well.
In a recent SEC filing earlier this week, Seagen and Pfizer announced that they have filed documents with the FTC and the Department of Justice in regards to antitrust approval for the transaction. Pfizer expects this deal to be completed in late 2023 or early 2024.
Horizon Therapeutics Public Limited Company Price
Horizon Therapeutics Public Limited Company price | Horizon Therapeutics Public Limited Company Quote
Zacks Rank
Horizon Therapeutics currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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