The European Commission has conditionally approved the proposed acquisition of Allergan by AbbVie. The approval is conditional on the divestment of a product under development by Allergan to treat inflammatory bowel diseases.
AbbVie, headquartered in the US, is a global pharmaceutical company active in six main areas; immunology (including autoimmune diseases), oncology, virology, neuroscience/central nervous system disorders, metabolic diseases and pain associated with endometriosis. Allergan on the other hand, headquartered in Ireland, is a global pharmaceutical company active in four main areas; medical aesthetics, eye care, neuroscience/central nervous system disorders and gastroenterology. AbbVie’s product portfolio includes several biologic drugs for IBD, notably risankizumab, a pipeline drug that a member of class of “IL-23 inhibitors” also Allergan is currently developing an IL-23 inhibitor, called brazikumab. The Commission determined that “brazikumab” of AbbVie and “risankizumab” of Allergan belongs to the same class of drugs so the potential transaction could cause higher price and less choice for users. Therefora AbbVie offered to divest fully Allergan’s brazikumab IL-23 inhibitor pipeline product to address EU’s concerns.
Finally, the European Commission approved the acquisition conditional upon this commitments.