The Regeneron chief executive has backed an attempt by US regulators to block Amgen’s $28bn acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics as he accused some pharmaceutical companies of abusing their market power to prevent competition.
Leonard Schleifer said he supported the US Federal Trade Commission’s decision to tackle a “new area” after the agency made its first attempt to block a pharma deal in over a decade by filing a novel lawsuit against the Amgen transaction.
In the past, regulators have tended to focus their energies on drugmakers who try to corner the market by buying up lots of medicines that treat the same disease. However, the FTC’s case against Amgen is targeted at the power the company allegedly wields more broadly with health insurers and middlemen in the US healthcare system, known as pharmacy benefit managers.