It may not come as a complete surprise that two more drug majors Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim have entered into a global asset swap agreement, this one a $25-billion transaction.
Earlier on Monday, a joint announcement said French company Sanofi would swap its animal health business (Merial) with Germany-based Boehringer Ingelhim’s (BI) consumer healthcare business (except in China).
It was a little over two years ago that three companies, Novartis-GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Eli Lilly, had formalised a three-way transaction: Novartis swapped its vaccines with GSK’s oncology business, even as it sold its animal health business to Eli Lilly. It also set up a joint venture with GSK for the consumer healthcare business that would include Novartis’ consumer healthcare business.
In a sense, the latest Sanofi-BI deal is on similar lines, reinforcing the message that companies are exploring various avenues in search of that all elusive growth pill, aiming to be in the top deck in the segments they are in.
In fact, Andreas Barner, Chairman of BI’s board, said the transaction would prospectively make it one of the largest global players in the animal health segment.
A similar statement was made by Olivier Brandicourt, Sanofi’s Chief Executive, who said the deal was significant to getting to its 2020 milestone — to become a leader in consumer healthcare, besides becoming a leading diversified global human healthcare company.
The Sanofi-BI deal also reveals a parallel track of the growing popularity of the consumer healthcare (where products can be sold over the counter) and animal health segments, as was evident from the earlier Novartis-GSK-Lilly deal as well.
India contours The present deal gives BI a global portfolio of anti-parasitics, vaccines and pharmaceutical specialties from Merial.
In India, Merial comes under Sanofi Synthelabo India. In 2013, it had acquired the animal health business of Dosch Pharmaceuticals, giving it access to 86 animal health products and 50 brands for poultry, companion animals and so on. It also brought into their fold 270 people.
BI’s consumer care would strengthen Sanofi’s presence in pain care, allergy solutions, cough and cold care, feminine care, digestive health and vitamins, minerals and supplements. In India, BI’s Dulcoflex product range and Buscogast product range (both stomach related) are available.
A final picture was not available on the number of employees supporting this business.
A clearer picture will emerge in the forthcoming days, as the two companies set about getting necessary approvals to meet their global timeline of closing the transaction by end 2016.