For those in attendance at the two-day regulator workshop on strengthening antitrust enforcement in the pharma industry, the message couldn’t have been clearer: The days when megamergers could sail through without much scrutiny are over.
Then, almost as if to present a test case for antitrust officials, The Wall Street Journal reported two days later that New Jersey-based Merck & Co. was eyeing the purchase of Seattle area-biotech Seagen which is now worth just over $30 billion. The report noted that there may be other suitors and that pulling a deal off “could be tricky given the heightened risk of a regulatory challenge.’’
