18 January 2017 - Major mergers in the biopharmaceutical industry are driven by a variety of factors, but the major one tends to be the acquisition of new assets to fuel growth of the acquiring company’s pipeline. 

I was personally involved in such processes a few times during my Pfizer tenure. When the possibility of a Warner-Lambert merger with American Home Products arose back in 1999, Pfizer stepped in and executed a hostile takeover with the express purpose of having sole access to what was becoming the biggest-selling drug of all time–Lipitor. Similarly, when Pfizer was facing a revenue gap in 2004, it acquired Pharmacia, not just for control of the COX-2 pain medication franchise, but also for a variety of other Pharmacia products that blended well with Pfizer’s drug portfolio.

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