Highlights of pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions during 2003

2003 was a year marked by significant consolidation in the pharmaceutical sector, particularly in biotechnology, worldwide. Overshadowing events in the mainstream drug sector came the well-documented, $57 billion, mega-merger of Pfizer and Pharmacia. Not only was this the biggest deal by far, Pfizer finished the year with another major acquisition, making a $1.3 billion bid for US firm Esperion Therapeutics (see page 2).

Pharmacia was itself the product of a large merger a few years back, with the consolidation of the Swedish Pharmacia company and then US drug major Upjohn. The Pfizer/Pharmacia deal which, as well as receiving an initial luke warm reception from many investors, generated a considerable amount of fall-out as the newly-merged entity shook out its pipeline to satisfy both anti-trust and its own strategic demands (Marketletters passim).

It also saw the disappearance of the Pharmacia name on day one of completion. Previous mergers have retained complex double names, such as Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham becoming GlaxoSmithKline, or reinventing names such as Aventis for Rhone-Poulenc and Hoechst, and Novartis for Ciba Geigy and Sandoz.