Recent Commission Merger Control Decisions in the Pharmaceutical Sector: Sanofi-Aventis/Zentiva and Teva/Barr

On 5 September and 3 November 2008, respectively, the Commission received two notifications of proposed mergers involving generic drug companies. The first concerned the plan for Sanofi-Aventis, a French innovator drug company, to acquire control of Zentiva, a regional generic player in Central and Eastern Europe particularly strong in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania (‘SA/Z’). The second involved two generic companies, with Teva of Israel acquiring control of US-based Barr (‘T/B’).