Health campaigners call for greater checks on AbbVie/Allergan merger
Trade unions and consumer groups have urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to intervene in the planned $63 billion merger of drugmakers AbbVie and Allergan, arguing it would “substantially harm competition”.
Allergan has already agreed to divest a developmental Crohn’s disease drug, brazikumab, to AstraZeneca in order to assuage antitrust concerns over the deal.
But groups including the American Federation of Teachers and the Service Employees International Union say this is not enough.
In their letter to the FTC, the consumer and labour representatives said that “thousands of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis patients will be ill-served by a remedy that places the risk of failure on their shoulders”.
They also accused AbbVie, the acquirer of Allergan, of using a “variety of exclusionary tactics to hamper rivals” in the immunology sector, and said that AstraZeneca “lacks the product portfolio in immunology to adequately compete” with the merged company.
According to the letter, AbbVie uses “rebate walls”, or discounts on blocks of products, to protect its market share for blockbuster drugs such as Humira (adalimumab) and Skyrizi (risankizumab-rzaa).
These tactics could create “substantial barriers” to AstraZeneca being able to successfully commercialise brazikumab.
Any remedy centred around divestiture of brazikumab would have to restrict AbbVie’s use of so-called “rebate walls”, the groups said.
The 12 signatories of the letter also include the Prescription Justice, Social Security Works, and End AIDS Now campaigns.
They are seeking a meeting with the FTC to “fully explain” their concerns over the proposed merger.
The deal has received approval from the EU and is expected to close this quarter. Abbvie shareholders will own approximately 83% of the company after the acquisition closes, with Allergan shareholders owning 17%.
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