Teva announced Friday that it completed its planned purchase of Cephalon after the European Commission cleared the transaction. Pursuant to the merger agreement, which sees Cephalon become a wholly owned unit of Teva, each share of Cephalon common stock has been converted into the right to receive $81.50 in cash.

European regulators said that Teva must divest Cephalon's marketing authorisation for a generic version of the narcolepsy drug Provigil (modafinil) in France. Teva also agreed to grant the purchaser "certain additional rights with respect to the entire European Economic Area, including a covenant not to sue," the companies said.

The European Commission ruled that because Teva already markets a generic version of the product, the move "will allow a competitor to emerge and compete effectively with the merged entity."

Earlier this month, regulators in the US conditionally approved Teva's acquisition of Cephalon, after the Israeli drugmaker agreed to divest certain assets and grant non-exclusive rights to Par Pharmaceuticals to market a generic version of Provigil.

Commenting on the news, Teva CEO Shlomo Yanai said "this important transaction reinforces Teva's long term strategy of building out our branded and specialty pharmaceuticals business through diversification and expansion of our product portfolio and pipeline, while enhancing our position as the worldwide leader in generics.

" He added that "we are welcoming many of Cephalon's talented employees into the Teva family."

According to Teva, the combined company generated approximately $20 billion in revenues on a pro-forma basis for the 12 months ended June 2011. As previously stated, Teva expects the acquisition to be immediately accretive to its earnings within the fourth quarter of closing

(Ref: South Florida Business Journal, Teva, Bloomberg, Globes, NASDAQ, FinanzNachrichten, FNNO, Philadelphia Business Journal).