FTC demands Boston Scientific divest business amid $4.2bn deal

The US Federal Trade Commission is requiring medical device maker Boston Scientific to divest business, as part of a settlement resolving antitrust charges related to its acquisition of UK-based healthcare company BTG.

Boston Scientific announced the $4.2 billion buy of BTG, which develops and commercialises products which are used in procedures targeting cancer and vascular diseases, in November last year.

However, the FTC claimed that Boston Scientific’s acquisition would harm consumers in the US market for drug eluting beads (DEBS), which are microscopic beads used to treat certain liver cancers.

Boston Scientific and BTG are the two largest suppliers of DEBs in the US, according to the FTC’s complaint.

“The complaint also alleges that new competition in this market is unlikely to occur in a timely manner to deter the anticompetitive effects of the proposed acquisition because of the length of time required for product development, Food and Drug Administration approval, and market adoption,” said the FTC’s statement, released yesterday, August 7.

According to the antitrust watchdog, eliminating the competition between Boston Scientific and BTG would allow the newly combined firm to “exercise market power unilaterally, resulting in higher prices, reduced innovation, and less choice for consumers”.

Under the proposed consent agreement, Boston Scientific will divest its DEB business to Varian Medical Systems, a radiation oncology treatments and software maker based in California, within ten days of closing its acquisition of BTG.

Boston Scientific will also divest its bland bead product line to Varian. Bland beads are used in a procedure to block the flow of blood to a liver tumour.

The FTC vote to issue the complaint and accept the proposed consent order for public comment was 5-0.

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