Pharmaceutical giant AbbVie (NYSE:ABBV) has won U.S. antitrust approval for its purchase of Allergan (NYSE:AGN) for $63 billion in cash and stock. The purchase is seen as a hedge against the impending expiration of U.S. patents on AbbVie’s blockbuster drug, Humira.
North Chicago-based AbbVie announced the deal in June 2019, but ran up against U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) antitrust concerns. Under a consent agreement with the FTC, the companies agreed to sell brazikumab, an investigational IL-23 inhibitor under development to treat ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, to AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN), which developed it and licensed it to Dublin, Ireland-based Allergan in 2016.
