The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's decision on Friday to allow Amgen's takeover of Horizon Therapeutics was the latest setback to its stated goal of stricter antitrust enforcement, and instead paved the way for Amgen to gain drugs not subject to new price negotiations and possibly lower the company's tax burden. The move signals the FTC's uncertainty that a court would support its novel theory of future competition being disadvantaged by Amgen's 'bundling' of drugs in negotiations with insurers. 'I think there is some skittishness on whether to pursue this and develop new case law,' said Abiel Garcia, a partner at Kesselman, Brantly & Stockinger and a former deputy attorney general in California's antitrust department.
- The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's decision on Friday to allow Amgen's takeover of Horizon Therapeutics was the latest setback to its stated goal of stricter antitrust enforcement, and instead paved the way for Amgen to gain drugs not subject to new price negotiations and possibly lower the company's tax burden.
Until Friday's settlement, the case was scheduled to go before U.S. District Judge John Kness, who was nominated to the court by former President Donald Trump. Amgen's acquisition of Horizon was the first biotech deal challenged since the FTC's 2021 launch of a pharmaceutical merger task force, which has been followed by workshops designed to explore concerns over increased industry consolidation.
"They are essentially buying an orphan drug portfolio," Yaron Werber, an analyst at TD Cowen, told Reuters. Horizon's drugs, and those Amgen acquired in last year's ChemoCentryx deal, are not subject to the Inflation Reduction Act enacted by the Biden administration in 2022, he explained. The recently released list of the initial 10 prescription medicines subject to the price negotiations includes Amgen's arthritis drug Enbrel, which had 2022 sales of $4.1 billion.
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