The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today announced that it will not oppose the proposed acquisition of Alcon Laboratories Inc by Novartis AG, after accepting court enforceable undertakings from Novartis.
Novartis and Alcon, both global pharmaceutical companies, entered into an agreement under which Novartis will become the majority shareholder in Alcon. The ACCC worked closely with a number of competition agencies around the world, who have also been reviewing the transaction.
In Australia, Novartis and Alcon compete in a number of pharmaceutical product markets relating to eye care, including injectable miotics, preparations for use in contact lenses, artificial tears and ocular lubricants, anti-glaucoma preparations and allergic conjunctivitis treatments.
After consultation with a range of market participants, the ACCC identified competition concerns in the Australian market for injectable miotics, which are used in eye surgery to rapidly shrink the pupil of the eye. The ACCC found that the proposed acquisition would remove the only competitor to Novartis in Australia in the supply of injectable miotic products and would result in Novartis being the sole supplier of these products in Australia.
To address these concerns, Novartis offered court enforceable undertakings that will see the injectable miotic assets in Australia sold to Bausch & Lomb.
"With these undertakings in place the ACCC considers the proposed acquisition is unlikely to result in a substantial lessening of competition," ACCC chairman Graeme Samuel said today.
Market participants did not raise competition concerns in relation to the other eye care markets and the ACCC did not identify any further concerns in these markets.
Throughout its review of the proposed acquisition, the ACCC coordinated with agencies in other countries which were also reviewing the transaction. In order to address competition concerns identified by the Federal Trade Commission in the United States, Novartis has agreed to divest certain assets related to the injectable miotics products globally to Bausch & Lomb. The FTC is yet to make a decision on whether to approve the proposed divestiture and proposed purchaser.
The undertaking will be available on the ACCC's website and the ACCC will issue a Public Competition Assessment explaining the reasons for its decision in due course.