New arrivals – December 20, 2018
December 19, 2018 – The British company of pharmaceutical products, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the American company of the same field, Pfizer, announced the union of their units of consumer healthcare to create a joint venture. This union will allow them to be the largest company in the world in the health care sector with sales of up to $12.7 billion dollars.
The transaction will mean the creation of the world's largest provider of non-prescription drugs, with brands such as Advil and Panadol, in which GSK will have a 68% stake and Pfizer 32%.
“This transaction is proof of the success of our unit of consumer healthcare, its good reputation, the talent of the teams that make it up, the high quality of its brands and the reach of its market share,” said Chris Slager, who will increase his operating margins with the transaction.
The merger is scheduled for the second half of 2019 and will operate under the name of GSK Consumer Healthcare. It will be chaired by Emma Walmsley, current CEO of GSK, who commented that "there are benefits of having a broader structure, but these are overshadowed by the value creation that this union will mean." In addition, it will be led by Brian McNamara, current CEO of GSK Consumer Healthcare, and Tobias Hestler, current CFO of the same area.
This agreement will mean a change in the production strategy, since, as announced, it will allow one of the companies to focus on the production of medicines and vaccines, and the other on consumer health.