Tag: Competition

The FTC required Grifols, S.A., a manufacturer of plasma-derived drugs, to make significant divestitures as part of a settlement allowing Grifols to acquire a leading plasma-derived drug manufacturer, Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corp. It resolves FTC charges that Grifols’ proposed acquisition of Talecris would be anticompetitive and would violate federal antitrust laws. As part of the settlement, Grifols will sell the Talecris fractionation facility in Melville, New York, and Grifols’ plasma collection centers in Mobile, Alabama, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Kedrion S.p.A. Kedrion is a manufacturer of plasma-derived products in Europe and other markets, and will be a new entrant in the U.S. plasma-derived products industry. Grifols also will manufacture three plasma-derived products for Kedrion for several years under a manufacturing agreement. The FTC approved a final order on July 22, 2011.

Baxter International Inc. and Claris Lifesciences Limited have agreed to divest two types of pharmaceutical products to settle charges that Baxter’s proposed $625 million acquisition of Claris’ injectable drugs business would (1) reduce current competition in the United States for the antifungal agent fluconazole in saline intravenous bags, which is used to treat fungal and yeast infections, and (2)reduce future competition in the U.S. market for intravenous milrinone, which dilates the blood vessels, lowers blood pressure and allows blood to flow more easily through the cardiovascular system. Under the FTC order, the parties will divest all of Claris’s rights to fluconazole in saline intravenous bags and milrinone in dextrose intravenous bags to New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company Renaissance Lakewood LLC. The order requires Baxter to supply Renaissance with fluconazole in saline intravenous bags and milrinone in dextrose intravenous bags for up to five years while transferring the manufacturing technology to Renaissance or its contract manufacturing designee. Baxter is also required to assist Renaissance in establishing its manufacturing capabilities and securing the necessary FDA approvals.

Broadcom Limited has agreed to establish a firewall to remedy the FTC’s concerns that its proposed $5.9 billion acquisition of Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. is anticompetitive. These concerns arise because of Broadcom’s current access to the confidential business information of Brocade’s major competitor, Cisco Systems, Inc., that could be used to restrain competition or slow innovation in the worldwide market for fibre channel switches.Fibre channel switches are part of storage area networks that transfer data between servers and storage arrays in data centers. Because fibre channel switches can quickly and securely transfer large amounts of data, they are often used for mission-critical applications. According to the complaint, San Jose, California-based Broadcom makes the fibre channel application specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, that are custom-tailored to carry out the functions of each switch. Brocade and Cisco are the only two competitors in the worldwide market for fibre channel switches, and Broadcom supplies both companies with ASICs to make fibre channel switches. The complaint alleges that Broadcom’s acquisition of Brocade could harm worldwide competition in the fibre channel switch market because as Cisco’s supplier, Broadcom has extensive access to Cisco’s competitively sensitive confidential information.  The FTC order prevents Brocade from using Cisco’s competitively sensitive confidential information for any purpose other than the design, manufacturing and sale of fibre channel ASICs for Cisco. It requires Broadcom’s business group responsible for developing, producing, selling and marketing fibre channel ASICs for Cisco to have separate facilities and a separate information technology system with security protocols that allow access only to authorized individuals, and provides for other information firewall protections. To assure compliance, the Commission will appoint a monitor for five years, and the Commission may extend the appointment for up to an additional five years.