The attempted merger between leading biopharma data provider IQVIA and pharma ad specialist DeepIntent has been put on ice after continued scrutiny from the U.S. government.
In 2022, IQVIA attempted to acquire Propel, the owner of DeepIntent, though the financial details of the proposed deal remain unknown. However, last summer, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) intervened and blocked the transaction.
The FTC argued that the acquisition would inevitably grant IQVIA a dominant position in healthcare product advertising, particularly for prescription drugs targeted at doctors and other healthcare professionals. The company is one of the world’s largest holders of pharmaceutical sales, prescription and patient record data, something that could, given its reach, allow it to monopolize the pharma advertising market.
Just last week, a New York judge upheld the block, and with a touch of inevitability, the pair has decided to halt the deal.
In an open letter to investors Chris Paquette, founder and CEO of DeepIntent, said the FTC’s block, and the judge’s decision to keep that block in place “clears the road ahead for an administrative court trial that would require significantly more time, energy and resources from our teams.”
Therefore, “after carefully weighing our options, DeepIntent and IQVIA have mutually agreed to abandon the proposed merger,” he wrote.“As you can imagine, this was an incredibly difficult moment for both companies, and it was a moment filled with emotion,” he added.
“We faced a seemingly impossible decision of having to choose whether to continue investing our time and energy into what we unconditionally believe is a pro-competitive merger, or investing our precious, finite resources into building our business and better serving our clients.”