GTBP - FTC moves to hinder cross-border pharma mergers; CVS cut to neutral at Guggenheim and more in today's analyst action

A day after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission signaled more scrutiny over what was considered as ‘anti-competitive’ mergers in the pharmaceutical industry, Citi analysts have weighed in on its impact on big pharma’s growth ambitions.The analysts Andrew Baum and Peter Verdult expect the governments to initiate measures to block cross-border mergers in a post-pandemic setup given the importance of securing supplies of vaccines and therapeutics in the event of a future pandemic.The proposed acquisition by AstraZeneca (AZN) for Alexion (ALXN) will gain attention after the Anglos-Swedish drugmaker said that it has decided to withdraw and refile its notification and report form following informal discussions with the FTC.In other analyst action, Guggenheim Securities has downgraded CVS Health (CVS) to neutral from buy attributing the vaccination-driven recovery optimism to the stock’s recent outperformance.CVS, which has lost 1.0% in the premarket has 2022 consensus forecasts already indicating a reasonable growth over 2021, Analyst Glen Santangelo wrote.Seeking Alpha

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FTC moves to hinder cross-border pharma mergers; CVS cut to neutral at Guggenheim and more in today’s analyst action