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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) 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
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Comments
By Anonymous | Posted 2:22pm | August 13, 2009
We need to stop spending this kind of money on drugs for animals because they are raised in factory farms. Good farmers don't need to use any drugs unless an animals becomes sick or has an injury. To fill up an animal on antibiotics they don't need or shouldn't need and then expect us to eat from that animals is driving many of us to become vegetarians. Many of us are allergic to the antibiotics they use and are appalled with the feed being laced with drugs. The pharmaceuticals have so much money in which to buy out other companies, why don't they reduce the ridiculous prices they charge us for our medicine. A 90 day supply of human drugs was $179 and 3 months later those same drugs cost the patient over $500. That price gouging is what also needs to change. Anyone desserves to make a profit, but this is past a profit and into the
realm of over the top and beyond.
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