www.fdanews.com/articles/189943-lawmakers-want-probe-of-bmscelgene-deal
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Lawmakers Want Probe of BMS/Celgene Deal
January 22, 2019
Two U.S. Representatives — one a Republican, the other a Democrat — are calling for a government probe into how Bristol-Myers Squibb’s planned $74 billion acquisition of Celgene could affect competition and drug prices.
Reps. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) wrote to the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission citing concerns that the deal could leave patients with fewer affordable treatment options by giving BMS access to cancer drugs that would otherwise serve as competition.
The cancer drugs the company will acquire as part of the deal include Celgene’s blockbuster blood cancer drug Revlimid (lenalidomide), which earned it $2.5 billion in the third quarter of 2018.