The Bundeskartellamt has permitted the international pharmaceutical company Grifols AS based in Spain to acquire Biotest AG based in Dreieich (Hesse). Biotest is a globally active pharmaceutical company with almost 2,000 employees, which has so far belonged to a Chinese investor. Both companies use human blood plasma to produce liquid pharmaceuticals, so-called plasma derivatives. They are used in cancer therapy and intensive care and to treat immune system deficiencies, coagulation disorders and other chronic diseases.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “Plasma-based drugs are vital for many forms of therapy. Only a few providers are active in the markets since the production and approval of such products is very time consuming and cost intensive. In particular, manufacturers depend on blood plasma donations from the general public, which are insufficient in Europe as a whole. While Grifols’ acquisition of Biotest will further reduce the number of providers, we do not have any serious competition concerns since there will still be sufficient alternatives to choose from. In addition, the planned merger will open up new perspectives to generate the blood plasma that is so very important and on which patients depend. The merger was cleared within the one-month deadline of first-phase merger control.”

Plasma-based drugs can be replaced by biotechnologically produced pharmaceuticals in a few cases only. Nevertheless, there will still be sufficient alternative providers to choose from after the merger since in addition to Grifols and Biotest, the leading company CSL Behring (Australia/USA), Octapharma (Switzerland) and Takeda (Japan), among others, are active in the markets. These companies are all active both in the EEA and in Germany.

Since they depend on blood plasma, manufacturers of plasma derivatives such as Grifols run their own donation centres especially in the USA. In Europe the volume of donations is limited. Due to its Chinese investor, Biotest has so far been prevented from operating donation centres in the USA. The parties see the merger as an opportunity to not only increase the volume of donations, but also the number of drugs obtained from the donated plasma.

Background:
Blood plasma is donated in a way similar to blood. However, since the blood is returned to the body after separating the plasma from other blood components, it is possible to donate plasma more often (in Germany up to 60 times a year). The volume of plasma donations is relatively low in Europe, which may be due to the fact that in many European countries, unlike in the USA, it is not allowed to compensate donors for their donation (e.g. to reimburse them for their travel costs or time) for ethical reasons. Plasma from the USA, where its collection is monitored by the US health authority FDA, is approved for the production of plasma derivatives for both the US and the European market and therefore particularly popular with manufacturers