The Danish Competition Council has approved Orifarm’s acquisition of certain assets from Takeda subject to commitments

Orifarm is a privately held Danish pharmaceutical company. The company's two business areas are parallel imported pharmaceuticals and generic pharmaceuticals. Takeda is a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, a multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company listed before the Tokyo and New York stock exchange. 

Orifarm acquires a product portfolio of 50 pharmaceuticals, 43 vitamin and dietary supplements and herbal medicines and two manufacturing sites in Denmark and Poland from Takeda.

Based on an overall assessment the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority (hereinafter “DCCA”) considered that the merger would lead to a significant impediment to effective competition due to unilateral and/or coordinated effects in 11 of the affected markets. 

Takeda is a member of The Danish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (hereinafter “Lif”), a trade association for researching pharmaceutical companies. As a generic company and parallel importer, Orifarm cannot become a member of Lif. As a result, the DCCA found that the merger could lead to a significant impediment to effective price competition and thus higher prices since Orifarm would not be part of the price ceiling agreements that Lif has entered into with the Ministry of Health and the Danish Regions. 

Orifarm has offered commitments to address the competition concerns of the DCCA. Orifarm commits to divest seven generic pharmaceuticals, five marketing authorizations for parallel imported pharmaceuticals and one over-the-counter product. In addition, Orifarm commits to comply with the price ceiling agreements that Lif has entered into with the Ministry of Health and the Danish Regions for 108 pharmaceutical products. 

The merger has also been notified and approved in Austria, Poland, Sweden and Finland.