Grifols, SA (Grifols) and Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corporation (Talecris), announced that they have signed a “Consent Agreement” with the Staff of the Bureau of Competition of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by means of which the conditions for the merger transaction between both companies are agreed. The Consent Agreement is subject to approval of the FTC Commissioners, who will be reviewing the matter.

To satisfy the Consent Agreement conditions, Grifols has signed agreements for the sale of assets and entered into certain commercial, lease and manufacturing agreements with the Italian company Kedrion, for up to seven (7) years.

These agreements refer to four main areas: Kedrion and Grifols enter into a contract manufacturing agreement to fractionate and purify Kedrion's plasma to deliver IVIG and Albumin under Kedrion's private label, and Factor VIII under the trade name Koate, all of them for sale only in the US, Grifols sells to Kedrion the Melville fractionation facility. Grifols will manage the facility for up to a four-year period under a lease agreement with Kedrion, Grifols sells to Kedrion the Talecris' FVIII US business (Koate) and Grifols sells to Kedrion two Plasma Collection Centres.

Grifols states that neither the Consent Agreement nor the agreements signed with Kedrion will affect the operating synergies that Grifols expects to achieve at the combined company with the merger transaction.  

Grifols is a Spanish holding company, specializing in the hospital-pharmaceutical sector, and with a presence in over 90 countries. Since May 2006 it has been listed on the Spanish Continuous Market, and it is included in the Ibex-35. It is the leading European plasma products company, and the fourth-largest producer in the world. The company has implemented an ambitious investment plan to enable it to deliver sustained growth over the next 8 to 10 years.

Talecris Biotherapeutics is a global biotherapeutic and biotechnology company that discovers, develops and produces critical care treatments for people with life-threatening disorders in a variety of therapeutic areas including immunology, pulmonology, neurology and haemostasis.

Kedrion is active in the development, production and distribution of plasma-derived pharmaceutical products used in treating patients affected by haemophilia, immune deficiency, coagulation disorders and other forms of serious diseases.