Amgen deal for Horizon likely to go through despite FTC objection: Guggenheim
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The Federal Trade Commission's lawsuit seeking to block Amgen's (NASDAQ:AMGN) acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics (NASDAQ:HZNP) will be unsuccessful given the high bar the agency is up against, according to Guggenheim.
Analyst Michael Schmidt said that while the FTC's action provides a "heightened risk of regulatory scrutiny from emboldened regulators willing to test novel theories of antitrust harm," the agency's arguments would need to align with how courts have recently ruled in cases regarding antitrust concerns, and recent precedents don't bode well for the FTC.
However, he noted additional regulatory scrutiny could become more common, and with Amgen (AMGN) and Horizon (HZNP), it could delay the acquisition from going through by six to 12 months.
"We expect the lawsuit to be closely watched as a bellwether for future potential legal challenges to biopharma M&A, including which anti-competitive theories of harm will be pursued by regulators (e.g., pursuit of "patent thickets," bundling & rebate practices with PBMs, etc.)," Schmidt wrote.
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