Pfizer’s $43 Billion Seagen Takeover Gets EU Merger Review

Pfizer Inc.’s $43 billion takeover of Seagen Inc. faces a European Union review after the companies formally notified the bloc’s merger watchdog.

The European Commission set Oct. 19 as a deadline to complete its initial probe, according to a filing on its website on Friday.

Seagen is a leader in developing a type of medicine called antibody-drug conjugates which help to deliver cancer-killing drugs so potent they might otherwise be too toxic to use. Seagen’s portfolio will double Pfizer’s pipeline of early-stage experimental cancer therapies, the company said when it announced the tie-up in March.

Pfizer, which has been ...