The Zimmer Biomet deal may be delayed.
Zimmer Extends Biomet Merger Deadline
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Zimmer Holdings, Inc. announced on April 13, 2015 that the “outside date” for completing the proposed merger with Biomet, Inc. has been extended to July 23, 2014. The company still expects the deal to close by the end of April or shortly thereafter.
The original agreement between the companies called for the deal to be completed by April 24, 2015. The agreement has an option for either party to extend the outside date for an additional 90 days if all the regulatory hurdles have not been cleared by the original date. Europe and Japan regulators have cleared the merger with provisions for the companies to divest some product lines. However, the merger has not yet been cleared by U.S. regulators at the Federal Trade commission (FTC) under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.
Bob Hopkins of Bank of America said his research suggests that “no new issues have arisen” with U.S. regulators at the FTC. He remains confident in a “near term deal close.”
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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