Novartis announced yesterday that the European Union antitrust regulators approved of its takeover of Chiron Corp. When I first blogged about the takeover here in this weblog, I thought it was a done deal. I didn't realize there were issues to be settled with the European Commission. Oh well, seems all that's cleared up now.

A monthlong European Commission investigation found "little or no overlaps exist between Novartis' and Chiron's product ranges,'' the EU head office said in a statement, adding that there was little potential competition overlaps between the two companies.

Novartis is paying $5.1 billion for the 58 percent of the Emeryville, Calif.-based company it doesn't already control.

Read more from Novartis or from SiliconValley.com.