FTC orders Baxter to divest rights in Claris deal

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved a final order combating the anticompetitive effects resulting from Baxter’s proposed $625 million acquisition of Claris’s injectable drugs business.

In July, the FTC filed a complaint suggesting that Baxter’s proposed acquisition would probably decrease competition in the US market for antifungal agent fluconazole, in saline intravenous bags, as well as future competition in the US market for intravenous milrinone.

The order put forward by the commission, which follows a public comment period, instructs the parties to divest all of Claris’s rights to fluconazole in saline intravenous bags and milrinone in dextrose intravenous bags to Renaissance Lakewood, a pharmaceutical company based in New Jersey.

Baxter will supply Renaissance with the relevant drugs for up to five years while also transferring the manufacturing technology to Renaissance.

The drugs in question dilate the blood vessels, lower blood pressure and allow blood to flow more easily through the cardiovascular system.

The FTC vote approving the final order was 2-0.