The chief executive of AbbVie launched a withering attack on the US Treasury last night as he confirmed that the merger with Shire, a UK bio-pharmaceutical group, had been officially terminated.
Rick Gonzalez, chief executive of the American drug maker, said the US Treasury’s “unprecedented” step to introduce administrative changes to US tax inversion law had “destroyed the value in this transaction” and was directly responsible for the collapse of the £32 billion merger.
Speaking on a conference call to investors, he said: “We are disappointed with the US Treasury as it [the rule change] does nothing to solve a fundamental problem of the US tax code.
The US tax code is outdated and is putting global US-based companies at a disadvantage to foreign competitors