The European Commission announced Thursday
that it approved Abbott's proposed purchase of
Solvay's pharmaceuticals business.
The EC wrote that its investigation "found that
competition concerns could be excluded in the pharmaceutical
markets, due to the limited horizontal overlaps between the parties'
activities and the lack of high market shares."
However, the antitrust regulator explained that its decision is conditional upon
Abbott carrying through with its offer to divest the cystic fibrosis testing business of a Solvay subsidiary. The
EC explained that the companies' "high combined market shares in the field…could have harmed competition
on the markets
