Key Takeaways
- IQVIA shares fell Wednesday after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it would temporarily block the health tech company’s proposed acquisition of Propel Media.
- The FTC filed to block the purchase in July, saying that IQVIA’s merger with the digital advertising company “would harm competition, raise prices for consumers, and hurt patients.”
- The regulatory agency said it will continue to seek a permanent block of the purchase, with an administrative trial scheduled to begin Jan. 18.
Shares of IQVIA Holdings Inc. (IQV), dropped 3.6% in intraday trading Wednesday after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that its request to temporarily block the health technology company from purchasing Propel Media Inc., a digital advertising firm, was granted.
The FTC filed to block the purchase in July 2023, saying that IQVIA, “the world’s largest health-care data provider,” acquiring Propel Media “would give IQVIA a market-leading position in programmatic advertising for health-care products, namely prescription drugs, to doctors and other health-care professionals.”
The agency, which monitors marketplace competition, said that the merger “would harm competition, raise prices for consumers, and hurt patients.”
“To close out 2023, the FTC secured another significant victory that temporarily blocks an anticompetitive merger that would raise health-care prices for consumers,” FTC Bureau of Competition Director Henry Liu said, adding that the agency would “look forward to continuing to fight to permanently enjoin this anticompetitive deal via the Commission’s administrative proceedings.”
An administrative trial is scheduled to start on Jan. 18.
IQVIA shares were down 3.6% at $222.05 per share as of about 3 p.m. ET Wednesday afternoon following the news.