Cerevel Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CERE) rose 2% after AbbVie (ABBV) reiterated that it expects the deal to close by the middle of the year.
Regulatory Review Progress
AbbVie (ABBV) also said that it's making “good progress” with the Federal Trade Commission in its review of the $8.7 billion planned acquisition, AbbVie President and Chief Operating Officer Robert Michael said at the Goldman Sachs 45th Annual Global Healthcare Conference on Wednesday.
Transaction Confidence and FTC Progress
“We're making very good progress with that piece,” Michael said. “You continue to expect to close the transaction in the middle part of the year.”
Cerevel (CERE) and AbbVie disclosed in February that they receivedsecond requests from the FTC for additional information regarding their planned deal. In early December, AbbVie announced plans to acquire Cerevel for $45 per share, or roughly $8.7B, in cash.
“When you think about, there's really not any significant overlap here,” Michael explained. “I mean, you mentioned, but has a very, very low share in schizophrenia. We don't even promote Vraylar in schizophrenia. And so there really isn't overlap there. And then on Parkinson's participates in an earlier segment of the disease, whereas you think about our offering with to Adopa, that's later-stage of Parkinson's. So there really is an overlap there either. So, for those reasons, we're confident that we'll close the transaction. We're making good progress with the FTC.”