MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - India's Sun Pharma Ltd. said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has terminated the antitrust waiting period for Sun's purchase of U.S.-listed Taro Pharma, after Sun agreed to sell the rights and assets to three generic formulations of the anticonvulsant drug carbamazepine to Torrent Pharmaceutical Ltd.
The FTC had alleged that the Sun-Taro transaction would be anticompetitive and would cause U.S. consumers to pay higher prices for the three generic formulations.
'The proposed acquisition would remove the direct competition between Sun and Taro for these key products and deny consumers the benefits of lower generic drug prices,' Jeffrey Schmidt, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition had said.
Taro Pharma, headquartered in Israel, develops and manufactures generic drugs primarily for sale in the United States, while Torrent is another generic drugmaker based in India.
On June 30, Sun unit Alkaloida Chemical Company Exclusive Group Ltd. -- which owns a 36 percent stake, or 24 percent voting rights in Taro -- began a tender offer to buy the outstanding Taro shares for $7.75 each in cash. The offer is expected to close on Sept. 2.
Sun Pharma did not provide financial details of the deal with Torrent.
At 11:21 a.m., Sun Pharma's shares were trading 0.44 percent higher at 1,443 rupees, while the benchmark Sensex was 1.78 percent lower at 14,824.48. tfn.newsdesk@thomson.com sim/jro/ajb COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2008. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
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