Why might Johnson & Johnson's third-quarter earnings cause consternation over at Pfizer HQ? Maybe because one of the brightest spots in J&J's report lay in its consumer division--the very division that acquired Pfizer's consumer brands. As BNet reports, that group posted $4.1 billion in 3Q sales, up 13.1 percent. Almost 10 percentage points of that growth was net of currency gains.
And which meds were top sellers for J&J during the quarter? Drum roll, please... Zyrtec, the over-the-counter allergy drug J&J rolled out this year. And you guessed it, Zyrtec was also part of the Pfizer consumer products deal. Oh, and by the way: J&J says it'll break even on the buyout by next year.
Now, we're sure that Pfizer had its own, very good reasons for hiving off that chunk of its business. But it's like any breakup: You hate to see your ex so happy and fruitful now that he/she's attached to someone else.
- read the BNet post