OT Pfizer buying Wyeth? | Arthritis Information

 

Neat little graphic, link to WSJ:

http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/2009/01/are-pfizer-buying-wyeth.html
it appears from what I just read, they are working on an offer..

Pfizer is SO big.From Bloomberg.com:

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc., seeking to replace revenue it will lose within three years to generic competition, is in talks to buy Wyeth . . . A combination would help Pfizer offset some of the billion in sales it will start losing in 2011 when its top-selling Lipitor cholesterol pill gets generic competition.

With .5 billion in cash and short-term assets as of Sept. 30, New York-based Pfizer is one of the world’s most cash-rich companies.  . . . The combined company would have annual sales of more than billion, 55 percent more than the world’s second-biggest drugmaker, GlaxoSmithKline Plc.

. . .A combination of Pfizer and Wyeth could spark other deals as drugmakers face competition from generic medicines and pressure from health insurers to lower prices amid the recession.  Merck & Co., Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Eli Lilly & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. also are poised for possible big deals, analysts have said. Drug companies, rich in cash from medicines people still need in a recession, have access to loans while other companies struggle for financing, said Deutsche Bank analyst Barbara Ryan.

 
. . . A deal would be the biggest pharmaceutical acquisition in almost five years and may signal consolidation in the drug industry as drugmakers seek to recover losses they’ll face in the next four years for branded medicines with 1 billion in annual sales.

. . . Pfizer CEO Kindler has been under pressure from investors and analysts to make a major acquisition as Lipitor sales fade in advance of the patent expiration."

For complete article see:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=acISLXSv6afA&refer=home


Note:  Wyeth is one of the world's top biotech drugmakers.  Wyeth and Amgen market RA drug, enbrel.





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