{"id":46457,"date":"2014-08-15T13:31:28","date_gmt":"2014-08-15T13:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=3b7ff537f3963385ca20c6310fcd4924"},"modified":"2014-08-15T13:31:28","modified_gmt":"2014-08-15T13:31:28","slug":"press-release-radioactive-tracer-merger-cleared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=46457","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Radioactive tracer merger cleared"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This confirms the Competition and Markets Authority\u2019s (CMA) provisional decision<\/a> which was published last month and has been made by a group of independent CMA panel members (see notes for editors). <\/p>\n

Alliance Medical Group Limited (Alliance) and IBA Molecular UK Limited (the IBA business) supply Fluorodeoxyglucose 18F (FDG-18), a radioactive tracer used in PET-CT scans which is purchased by hospitals and others who provide such scans. Due to its short radioactive half-life, an effective dose can only be given to a patient within a maximum of 8 hours following production, which limits the area which can be served by a particular production unit.<\/p>\n

In its final report published today<\/a>, the CMA states that the IBA business had been consistently loss-making for several years, its losses would have worsened and it suffered from a weak competitive position, making it likely that, without this merger, it would have ceased to produce FDG-18 and there would not have been an alternative purchaser of the business. <\/p>\n

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) referred the case to the Competition Commission (CC) in March 2014 following a phase 1 review, since which time the CMA has taken over the case (see notes for editors).<\/p>\n

Notes for editors<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. The CMA is the UK\u2019s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law. From 1 April 2014 it took over the functions of the CC and the competition and certain consumer functions of the OFT, as amended by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  2. The CMA therefore took over this case from the CC at the start of April. \t<\/li>\n
  3. All the CMA\u2019s functions in phase 2 merger inquiries are performed by inquiry groups chosen from the CMA\u2019s panel members. The appointed inquiry group are the decision makers on phase 2 inquiries.\t<\/li>\n
  4. The members of the Alliance\/IBA merger group are: John Wotton<\/a> (Inquiry Chair), Sarah Chambers<\/a>, John Krumins<\/a> and Tim Tutton<\/a>.\t<\/li>\n
  5. The CMA\u2019s independent panel members come from a variety of backgrounds, including economics, law, accountancy and\/or business; the membership of an inquiry group usually reflects a mix of expertise and experience (including industry experience).\t<\/li>\n
  6. Enquiries should be directed by email to Rory.Taylor@cma.gsi.gov.uk<\/a> or Siobhan.Allen@cma.gsi.gov.uk<\/a> or by ringing 020 3738 6798 or 020 3738 6460.\t\t<\/li>\n
  7. For CMA updates, follow us on Twitter @CMAgovuk<\/a>, Flickr<\/a> and LinkedIn<\/a>. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Photo above by Thirteen Of Clubs<\/a> on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons<\/a>, photo resized and machine brand removed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The CMA has cleared Alliance\u2019s acquisition of the assets of the IBA business used to produce a radioactive tracer for cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}