Pfizer. AstraZeneca. Eli Lilly. Novartis. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) . And, now Bayer and Merck.
Bayer will be taking over the consumer care (and non-prescription drug) business of Merck. For $ 14.2 billion, Bayer will be come the second largest provider of OTC (over-the-counter) products;’ second mostly because of the merger of Novartis and GSK that we discussed yesterday. And, there’s another part of this deal- Bayer will co-develop a series of cardiovascular therapies (for which Merck will shell out about $ 2 billion).