Pharma giant AstraZeneca’s takeover of New Haven-born Alexion Pharmaceuticals has scaled its final regulatory hurdle and is expected to wrap up next week.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority had been looking into potential antitrust concerns but ultimately gave its blessing to the $39 billion acquisition, AstraZeneca announced Wednesday morning.
The decision clears the way for the deal to close on July 21, the UK-based drug maker said.
“We are very pleased to have secured this critical final clearance,” Marc Dunoyer, AstraZeneca’s chief financial officer, said in a statement. “We look forward to the imminent closing of the transaction so that we may pursue our shared ambition to bring more innovative medicines to patients worldwide and begin AstraZeneca’s next chapter of growth.”
Dunoyer is set to replace Ludwig Hantson as Alexion’s CEO when the deal closes.
The UK decision follows approvals in 12 other countries and the European Union, which signed off on the deal last week. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) gave its green light in April.
Alexion, which has more than 500 employees in New Haven, will remain headquartered in Boston and be renamed “Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease” after the deal closes.
The companies first announced plans to combine last December.
AstraZeneca said in May that after the merger, it expects to have a “continued presence” in the Elm City, where Alexion got its start as a Yale spinout in 1992. It moved its headquarters to Boston in 2018.
Contact Natalie Missakian at news@newhavenbiz.com.
