Senator Targets Amgen and Indivior Acquisitions for Antitrust Action

Last week, the Senator from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, penned a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) where she characterized recent consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry as a threat to competition, innovation, and the wallets of Americans. In her letter, Senator Warren encouraged FTC officials to review proposed transactions and unwind any mergers and acquisitions that would violate antitrust laws.

Senator Warren cited Merck’s acquisition of Imago BioSciences, the AbbVie/Allergan deal, and others as examples of a new pharmaceutical trend that has seen companies shift from creating their own treatments to buying smaller companies and securing already patented drugs.

The letter specifically called out Amgen’s proposed acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics and Indivior’s acquisition of Opiant as two deals that required greater scrutiny. “Amgen’s $28.7 billion proposed acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics would be among the largest healthcare deals of recent years,” wrote Warren. “Both Amgen and Horizon have engaged in brazen price increases on drugs that face little or no competition, while Amgen has abused the patent process, creating patent thickets to ‘evergreen’ their products, prevent generic competition, and maintain market dominance.”

Amgen’s drug Enbrel was mentioned in Warren’s letter as an example of patent dominance that has led to price hikes. In 2019, an appellate court upheld the validity of two Amgen patents for the plaque psoriasis drug Enbrel, thwarting biosimilar competition from the pharmaceutical company Sandoz. In a communication to the company’s stockholders, Amgen’s CEO Robert Bradway said that the Horizon drug pipeline would complement internal R&D efforts and drive revenue growth.

Historically, Horizon therapeutics had profited by increasing the price of drugs, like when it raised the cost of the painkiller Vimovo and the gout medication Krystexxa.

Additionally, the original creator of opioid addiction treatments, Indivior, was targeted for noncompetitive practices in Warren’s FTC plea: “Indivior’s history of engaging in illegal monopolistic behavior raises questions about whether and how consumers would benefit from allowing them to acquire Opiant’s new form of nalmefene, along with its other advanced treatments for opioid use disorder.” Warren went on to suggest that big pharmaceutical companies also have a track record of cutting R&D spending after completing large acquisitions.

CEO of Indivior, Mark Crossley, described his company’s acquisition of Opiant as “an excellent strategic fit” that would provide Indivior with one of the “most comprehensive and relevant treatment platforms” to address the ongoing opioid epidemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of American lives.

In the letter’s closing, Senator Warren advocated for a more consistent application of antitrust law and implied that the new mergers could result in price gouging from consolidated pharmaceutical companies.