House committee probes FTC disclosure of confidential info in reviewing Amgen-Horizon deal

House Over­sight Com­mit­tee Chair James Com­er (R-KY) sent a stern let­ter to FTC chair Lina Khan last week, claim­ing the com­mis­sion im­prop­er­ly dis­closed con­fi­den­tial in­for­ma­tion as it re­viewed the merg­er be­tween Am­gen and Hori­zon Ther­a­peu­tics, which was com­plet­ed in ear­ly Oc­to­ber.

Com­er al­leges that the FTC dis­closed con­fi­den­tial in­for­ma­tion pro­duced by Am­gen and Hori­zon on “at least four sep­a­rate oc­ca­sions” dur­ing the FTC’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the merg­er. The in­for­ma­tion in­clud­ed “in­ter­nal Hori­zon pre­sen­ta­tions, doc­u­ments, pre­dic­tions on FDA ap­proval, patent ex­pi­ra­tion dates, and re­search projects,” and was vis­i­ble to any­one who copied and past­ed the sec­tions from an elec­tron­ic copy of the doc­u­ment, he wrote in his let­ter dat­ed Nov. 20.

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