Recent CMA Healthcare & Life Sciences Merger Cases
17 August 2023
Healthcare & Life Sciences remains an important area of focus for the UK's Competition & Markets Authority (CMA). Over the years, the CMA has brought high-profile enforcement cases in the pharmaceutical space, on which the vast majority Clifford Chance has advised. Moreover, the CMA continues to investigate Healthcare & Life Sciences mergers, of note in recent years its investigations in Roche / Spark and Illumina / PacBio. This focus on mergers has continued over the past year; this briefing considers three such merger cases, being Cochlear / Oticon Medical, Bestway / Lexon and Asurex, and UnitedHealth / EMIS. While UnitedHealth / EMIS is still progressing through its phase II process, the CMA has provisionally cleared the transaction.