The European Commission (EC) has granted approval of Elanco Animal Health’s pending $7.6- billion acquisition of Bayer AG’s animal health business. The companies announced the acquisition last year (August 2019) and now anticipate a closing early next month (approximately August 3, 2020).

Elanco is the former animal-health business of Eli Lilly and Company, which was spun out as a stand-alone company in 2019.

Elanco previously announced divestiture agreements in the range of $120 million to $140 million of revenue to help advance the needed regulatory reviews. The EC’s approval is conditional on several of these proposed divestitures, including: 

• Divestiture of the worldwide rights for Osurnia, a treatment for otitis externa in dogs, being sold to Dechra Pharmaceuticals, a veterinary pharmaceuticals and related products business.
• Divestiture of the worldwide rights for Vecoxan, used for the prevention and treatment of coccidiosis in calves and lambs being sold to Merck Animal Health
• Divestiture of rights in the European Economic Area and UK to the Drontal and Profender product families and related pipeline assets from Bayer Animal Health being sold to Vetoquinol SA, a French pharmaceutical company. These products are broad-spectrum de-wormers for dogs and cats.

In addition to EC approval, Elanco has received antitrust clearance for the transaction in China, Colombia, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, Vietnam, and provisional clearance in Brazil. Elanco continues to cooperate with agencies in other jurisdictions.

Further, Elanco fully secured financing early in the first quarter of 2020 to complete the transaction through its completed equity issuance and pricing of its Term Loan B, which will fund at deal close.

The transaction remains subject to additional regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

Source: Elanco Animal Health and the European Commission