Under the terms of the takeover to be carried out by Pillartree Limited, a newly formed private limited company wholly owned by Amgen, the Thousand Oaks, California- based biotech has agreed to pay $116.50 for each Horizon share.

A successful close, penciled in for the first half of 2023, would give Amgen access to two of Horizon’s fast-growing therapies — Tepezza for thyroid eye disease and Krystexxa for gout. Analysts estimated when the plans were unveiled in December last year that the two together could generate sales of $3.6 billion in 2202, rising to $5.8 billion in 2027.

In the meantime, the US biotech and its Ireland-domiciled acquisition target have both received two letters from the US competition authority, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), asking for information. Fiery US senator Elizabeth Warren is also on the case.

In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Horizon said both it and Amgen intend to promptly respond to the most recent requests, which were received a week ago.

Arguing against the Amgen-Horizon deal as well as Indivior’s plans to buy Opiant for an initial $145 million, Warren has written to the FTC, expressing concern over “rampant consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry “as well as potential drug affordability and access. Her letter cited the involved companies’ “long history of corporate price gouging and monopolistic behavior.”

Recent decades have seen “extensive consolidation” of the pharmaceutical industry, the Massachusetts senator said. Some 60 dominant companies were whittled down to just 10 between 1995 and 2015, leading to higher prices for as well as “decreased innovation.”

Amgen has been especially acquisitive, paying $3.7 billion for biopharma ChemoCentryx in October 2022 and in 2021 clinching deals for Teneobio and Five Prime Therapeutics worth up to $2.5 billion and $1.9 billion respectively.

In 2020, FTC officials questioned whether or not mega mergers in the pharma sector were healthy, hinting the agency might take a closer look at some of these. The latest information requests could be an indicator that may actually be doing so, observers said.

For its part, Amgen is standing by its timeline to complete the takeover of Horizon by the end of June, following all shareholder and regulatory approvals. Along with the blessing of Irish authorities, it will need antitrust clearance in Austria, Germany and the US and also must obtain foreign investment clearances in Denmark, France, Germany and Italy.

The California biotech said it is “working cooperatively” with the FTC and remains confident that ”there are no anti-competitive aspects” to the proposed transaction.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist