Posted on 01/23/2009 3:15:57 PM PST by Dysart
NEW YORK (AP) — Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drugmaker, may be seeking to buy rival Wyeth in a deal that could be valued at more than $60 billion, the biggest in recent memory.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the companies have been in talks for months, although the report said any deal is not near completion and the state of the global markets could undo any plans.
Such a deal could cheer investors and analysts who have been pushing Pfizer — struggling with flat revenue, diminishing returns on research and looming generic competition to the world's top-selling drug — to make a bold move to get out of its doldrums.
Until now, it has been taking baby steps, cutting staff here, closing plants there and trimming its research portfolio.
But acquiring Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth would transform Pfizer almost overnight from basically a pure pharmaceutical company into a broadly diversified health care giant, given Wyeth's huge presence and revenue in biotech drugs, vaccines including the blockbuster pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar and consumer health products from Advil to Robitussin.
"Such an acquisition makes strategic and financial sense," Credit Suisse analyst Catherine Arnold wrote to investors, adding the reported deal was not a surprise. "This deal would instantly make (Pfizer) a top-tier biologics player."
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
This would be a job killer deluxe. Good luck to the soon to be unemployed. The pharma industry is really tightening up.
Between generic competition, over-regulation, and (soon) the federal government negotiating prices directly, it's a brutal time to be in the pharma sector.
I thing Pfizer makes a drug for that.
[groan]
Maybe Zero will not even allow it. Has anyone checked with him on this yet?
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