ABT Abbott Laboratories

By Austen Hufford 

Alere Inc. escalated its fight with reluctant buyer Abbott Laboratories by filing a lawsuit against its potential acquirer to push it to move forward with the deal.

Abbott agreed to buy Alere in February for nearly $5 billion. Since then, Alere disclosed it has received a subpoena regarding a foreign corruption investigation over payments in Africa, Asia and Latin America and it said separately that federal investigators are seeking information about government-billing practices. The company was also late in filing its 2015 annual report.

Since agreeing to the deal, Abbott has signaled it might not want to ultimately go through with it. Earlier this month Abbott said the deal might not be completed "on a timely basis, or at all." Alere rejected an offer of up to $50 million to terminate the deal.

Alere said Friday that it would "take all actions necessary" to make Abbott complete the deal.

The complaint isn't publicly available, but a related court filing Thursday said Abbott "has breached the merger agreement between the parties by failing to promptly secure antitrust approvals and other regulatory requirements." Alere is seeking to expedite the proceedings.

Abbott said the lawsuit was without merit. "Abbott is compliant with its obligations under the merger agreement and continues to work toward regulatory approvals, despite Alere's nearly six-month delay in filing its" annual report, a spokeswoman for Abbott said.

Abbott shares slipped 0.2% as Alere shares fell 3% in afternoon trading Friday. Alere shares recently traded at $39.46, well below the deal price of $56, indicating investors are doubtful that the deal will close.

--Liz Hoffman contributed to this article.

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 26, 2016 13:27 ET (17:27 GMT)

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