J&J gets FTC clearance to buy Synthes

[June 12, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Johnson & Johnson will have to sell its system for surgically treating serious wrist fractures to win federal clearance of its pending $21.3 billion acquisition of Synthes Inc.

The New Brunswick, N.J., health care giant agreed to buy the Swiss orthopedic device maker last year in its biggest deal ever.

The Federal Trade Commission is approving the transaction as long as Johnson & Johnson sells the wrist fracture system, called DVR, to Biomet Inc. of Warsaw, Ind. Otherwise, the FTC says, the two companies would control more than 70 percent of the market for such systems.

Earlier this year, Johnson & Johnson agreed to sell its trauma business to win approval from European Union competition regulators.

Johnson & Johnson has called the orthopedics market an important growth driver.

[Associated Press]

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