Teva Anxious for FTC Approval on Allergan Deal

Teva Pharmaceuticals expects to close the purchase of Allergan PLC’s generic pharmaceuticals business next month, according to an executive.

“We expect to close the Allergan deal in June, and hope and believe we will obtain approval for it, but it takes a great deal of time for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission [FTC] to check it,” Teva CFO Eyal Desheh was quoted in Globes on Sunday.

The $40.5 billion acquisition was made public in July 2015, but delays in its completion have led to doubts in the market, which Desheh sought to dispel.

The FTC has decreed that Teva must sell product lines worth $1.1 billion in which its business overlaps with that of Allergan. But Desheh said that should be no cause of concern.

“We can get a great deal of money for these products, and negotiations with a number of companies have reached a very advanced stage,” he said.

As part of financing for the deal, Teva raised $7.2 billion in a share offering in late 2015.

The delays have affected the company; Teva stock has since lost 17 percent of its value, and the company ended the first quarter with $10 billion in debt.

But Desheh said, “The Allergan deal will obviously change this picture, but we are now in one of the strongest positions we have had in recent years.”