EU clears pharmaceutical merger as competition concerns deemed negligible

The European Commission has approved BC Partners and ACS Dobfar’s purchase of joint control of Swiss company InfoRLife under EU merger rules.

The deal involves BC Partners LLP, based in the UK, and Italy’s ACS Dobfar S.p.A., which will share control of InfoRLife SA, the Commission informed in a release on Thursday.

The transaction relates primarily to the pharmaceutical sector.

The Commission said it cleared the deal because it did not expect competition concerns, citing that the joint venture has negligible activity in the European Economic Area — the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

Simplified review

The case was assessed under the Commission’s simplified merger review procedure.

More details are available on the Commission’s competition website and in its public case register under case number M.12585.