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US: Roche extends Spark buyout deadline

By  |  July 8, 2019

Roche and Spark Therapeutics’ road to a US$4.3 billion merger has been a rocky one, with various delays pushing the long-gestating agreement back four times. Now, in order to get all its regulatory ducks in a row, Roche is moving its own deal-close deadline back as well.

Roche moved its Spark closing deadline from January 31, 2020, to April 30, 2020, according to a Monday, July 8, regulatory filing. The move is a precautionary one, meant to give the deal partners time to clear any hurdles that may come up as US and UK antitrust regulators review the companies’ marriage.

In a note to Spark investors, Roche CEO Severin Schwan wrote that the plan was still to close the merger in 2019 despite the new deadline.

Full Content: Biopharma Dive

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