FTC to Grifols: Sell Plasma Collection Sites or No Merger

Grifols SA must sell off blood plasma collection centers in three U.S. cities if it wants to complete its proposed acquisition of Biotest U.S. Corp.

The Federal Trade Commission is requiring the Spanish company to get rid of the centers before it will let its acquisition of Biotest go through. Without the sell-off, the FTC would have challenged the acquisition as anticompetitive because the merger would have given Grifols a monopoly in the plasma collection market in Augusta, Ga.; Youngstown, Ohio; and Lincoln, Neb. Grifols has nearly 250 plasma collection centers in the U.S. and Europe.

The proposed settlement ...