EU approves Novartis bid for Austria's EBEWE
(BRUSSELS) - Europe's competition watchdog on Wednesday approved the bid by Swiss pharmaceutical group Novartis for Austrian generic drugs company EBEWE Spezial-Pharma.
The European Commission decided that the proposed deal would not hit competition as overlaps in the companies' activities "would only arise in a small number of markets where a sufficient number of credible competitors would remain."
Novartis is active in the development, production and distribution of both original and generic drugs and animal health products around the world.
EBEWE SP makes and distributes specialty generic drugs, focussing on oncology.
Novartis said in May it would buy the injectable generic drugs business for 925 million euros (1.2 billion dollars).
The Swiss company said the deal would allow its generic subsidiary Sandoz -- which makes treatments on which patents no longer apply -- to expand its production of injectable cancer treatments and take a stronger foothold in a growing market.
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