Through the acquisition of its competitor Wyeth for 68 billion dollars, the US Pharmaceutical Group Pfizer has created a pharmaceutical giant with a turnover of 75 billion dollars.

This transaction will enable the two groups to deal with the imminent expiry of the licences for several of their top-selling drugs and with the competition from generics.

To illustrate the diversification of its portfolio of pharmaceutical products, Pfizer indicated that "by 2012 no one particular medicine should account for more than 10% of the combined turnover of the new entity".

Pfizer was already the number one pharmaceutical group in the world based on its turnover, and number four in terms of market capitalisation, with Wyeth in tenth position in terms of market capitalisation.

26/01/2009 Copyright © L'Echo.be