The world’s biggest drugs companies are in talks with bankers about ways to cash in their multi-billion pound portfolios of older drugs in the face of declining sales.
The UK’s AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, American pharmaceutical groups Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer and Merck and France’s Sanofi are all exploring ways to shed their off-patent drug portfolios, according to sources.
The drugs firms are understood to have already started to sound out potential buyers. The moves come as some of their biggest-selling drugs lose patent protection and face competition from generic rivals at the same time as increased cost pressures and the difficulties in discovering new innovative medicine.
“It’s a next step in the overall portfolio rationalisation trend that is dominating the sector,” Kasim Kutay, managing director and co-head of Europe and Moelis, said.
GlaxoSmithKline has taken the boldest strides to date after segregating its off-patent into an “established drugs” division with separate financial reporting. The drug groups is working with Lazard and has already spoken with some private equity groups to test the interest in its product.
No comments:
Post a Comment