Merck scouts buyers for animal-health ops

Merck is shopping its animal-health assets for a post-merger sale. Up for grabs: Either Merck's 50 percent stake in Merial or Intervet Schering-Plough Animal Health, according to the Wall Street Journal. The former could fetch around $5 billion; the latter, $6 billion to $8 billion.

Essentially, Merck wants to show antitrust regulators that its $41 billion buyout of Schering-Plough won't give it too much sway over the animal-medication industry. A company spokeswoman confirmed that Merck is scouting for buyers, but says the company hasn't made any decisions yet. And she stressed that Merck wants to stay in the animal-health biz.

Potential buyers? Several, including Novartis, Bayer, and Boehringer Ingelheim, sources told the WSJ. Then there's Sanofi-Aventis; CEO Chris Viehbacher (photo [1]) has said he's interested in growing the company's animal health operations. And Eli Lilly chief John Lechleiter also has said he wants to expand in animal health.

- read the WSJ story [2]

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