Tag: Health Care

Global medical technology company Medtronic, Inc. agreed to divest the drug-coated balloon catheter business of Ireland-based medical products company Covidien plc, in order to settle FTC charges that its $42.9 billion acquisition of Covidien would likely be anticompetitive. Under the FTC’s proposed settlement, Medtronic will sell the drug-coated balloon catheter business to a Colorado-based medical device company, The Spectranetics Corporation. According to the FTC’s complaint, both Medtronic and Covidien are developing drug-coated balloon catheters to compete with C.R. Bard, Inc., which currently is the only company that supplies these products, used to treat peripheral artery disease, in the U.S. market. Medtronic and Covidien are the only companies with products in clinical trials in the Food and Drug Administration’s approval process, which makes it unlikely that other competitors could enter the market in time to counteract the effects of the merger.

Pharmaceutical company Prestige Brands Holdings, Inc., the maker of Dramamine, agreed to divest assets and marketing rights for the over-the-counter motion sickness drug Bonine to settle FTC charges that Prestige’s proposed acquisition of Insight Pharmaceuticals Corporation would likely be anticompetitive. Prestige proposed to acquire Insight for $750 million. According to the FTC’s complaint, Prestige’s Dramamine, which is the best-selling branded product in the market for over-the-counter motion-sickness drugs, and Insight’s Bonine, are the only two branded products with significant sales. Absent a remedy, the acquisition would eliminate the close competition between Dramamine and Bonine, likely leading to higher prices for consumers.