Study on Killer Acquisitions in the Pharma Sector

We are thrilled to announce that our report on ‘killer acquisitions’ in the pharmaceutical sector has been published by the European Commission.

Key Findings:
Between 2014 and 2018, approximately 18 transactions per year in the pharmaceutical sector were followed by an unexplained discontinuation of overlapping R&D projects. The study concludes these transactions could have warranted greater scrutiny from competition authorities since there was no clearly identifiable technical or safety reason explaining the detected discontinuation.

The study also:

• evaluates the European Commission’s past approaches to addressing potential killer acquisitions and recommends greater caution in designing remedies for such cases.
• assesses whether existing the current antitrust enforcement toolbox (merger regulation, Art. 101 & 102) is adequate to prevent or deter harmful acquisitions.

This work was conducted by a Lear team comprising partner Alessia Marrazzo, senior consultant Rossella Mossucca, consultants Livia de Simone and Clarissa Lotti, junior consultants Mohamed Dahmani and Nada Gaijc. The project team also included academics Anna Bennato and Carmine Ornaghi, and industry experts Mel Walker, Doug Nave, Marc Kimber, and Nic Meade.

Check out the full report here
Have a look at our Lear Competition Note  on Killing Me Softly: Pharma Acquisitions and Competitive Harm

Below is a collection of reviews and comments regarding this report.

Paul Weiss – Overview of the Lear Report and the DG-Comp Workshop: Ex-Post Evaluation Study into ‘Killer Acquisitions’ in the Pharma Sector

SIMMONS- SIMMONS –  Commission study on Killer Acquisitions in Pharma

Cleary Gottilieb  –  Killer Acquisitions” Study in Pharma Calls For Stricter Scrutiny

Osborne Clarke – Killer acquisitions’ in Europe’s pharmaceutical sector: is more regulation needed?