The European Commission's Pharmaceutical Merger Control Practice : An Overview of the State of Play

With characteristics rendering it prone to consolidation, the pharmaceutical industry has seen numerous waves of M&A over the last few decades. The $221 billion worth of pharmaceutical deals completed in the first half of 2015 marks the largest surge of transactions since 2009. A substantial number of pharmaceutical M&A deals required EU merger control clearance. This has resulted in a large body of European Commission ("Commission") decisions. In light of the particular features of the pharmaceutical industry, the Commission has developed a specific framework for assessing pharmaceutical concentrations. This analytical framework has evolved significantly over time. The present contribution aims to provide an overview of the state of play of the Commission's pharmaceutical merger control practice, and also identifies some elements that arguably warrant reconsideration