Pfizer and Warner-Lambert finalise merger

Pfizer and Warner-Lambert on Monday completed their merger, creating the world’s largest pharmaceuticals company by market value, after the Federal Trade Commission approved the deal.

To satisfy the FTC, the two US companies agreed that Pfizer would sell RID, its head-lice treatment, and its rights to an anti-cancer compound it was developing. The FTC also required Warner-Lambert to end its co-promotion of Celexa, a depression treatment, and to sell its interest in Cognex, a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

Pfizer said the combined group would have a market capitalisation of $302bn, and estimated revenues of $31bn for the year 2000, from products such as Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering agent marketed by the two companies. Pfizer said the combined company had eight products on track to earn more than $1bn in annual sales this year.

In a statement, William Steere, Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive, said the deal was “the first major pharmaceutical industry merger executed from a position of strength for both companies involved.”

Lodewijk de Vink, Warner-Lambert’s chairman, is now expected to stand down. He had wanted to merge Warner-Lambert with American Home Products, another US pharmaceuticals company.

The European Commission cleared the deal last month after the companies agreed certain disposals in Europe. The all-stock deal valued Warner-Lambert at $114bn on the basis of Monday’s closing prices.