German Fresenius to cancel controversial take-over of Akorn

BERLIN, April 23 (Xinhua) -- The German medical technology firm Fresenius reversed its controversial decision to acquire U.S. pharmaceutical producer Akorn despite facing threats of legal action, a spokesperson for the Bad Homburg-based company confirmed on Monday.

"Our decision is correct and well-founded," a statement by the spokesperson read.

Earlier, Fresenius had announced that it was no longer willing to acquire Lake Forest-based Akorn for an agreed price of 4.4 billion euros (5.4 billion U.S. dollars) on account of accusations that the take-over target had breached of regulations set by the local Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Akorn subsequently released a statement threatening legal action if Fresenius went ahead with plans to withdraw from the merger.

Nevertheless, Fresenius emphasized that no written protests could "change any of the facts" of irregular behavior. These constituted a failure on behalf of the U.S. firm to fulfill contractual conditions agreed between the two parties and justified the radical step.

The spokesperson cited an independent investigation at Akorn which had drawn attention to significant issues concerning data integrity.

By contrast, the U.S. firm insists that none of the evidence encountered by investigators has negative implications for its business model and consequently rejects claims that there are sufficient grounds to cancel the sale.

Financial markets reacted positively to the news that Fresenius has given up on the merger, with the value of the DAX-listed medical technology company's shares rising in Monday trading.

Fresenius published record profit of 1.8 billion euros and revenue of 33.9 billion euros for the 14th consecutive year in 2017.

Additionally, the company recently announced that it would sell its highly-profitable dialysis-subsidiary Fresenius medical Care (FMC) to U.S. Sound Inpatient Physicians for 1.76 billion euros. Enditem