An Ode to Wyeth

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Antitrust issues in the U.S. and Canada done,
There's nothing left to do.
Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) wed its bride Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) today,
And to that I say: "Boo-hoo."

(Don't worry, I'm done rhyming.)

The ticker will be gone -- oh, WYE, WYE, WYE? Not even a hyphenated name will remain. What would founders John and Frank Wyeth think?

Of course, it hadn't been Wyeth for very long -- only since 2002. Before that it was American Home Products. A catchy name, for sure. But not the company Wyeth had become.

Turning into a Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Abbott Labs (NYSE: ABT), or Bayer wasn't in the cards. It shunned its agriculture division, household products and candy -- yes, candy! -- years earlier. Wyeth had become a pharmaceutical specialist. Perhaps that was its downfall?

Or maybe it was Fen-phen. Merck's (NYSE: MRK) Vioxx was its only saving grace -- from having Fen-phen mentioned every time safety issues arose.

Whatever the reason, Pfizer liked what it saw: a nice vaccine in Prevnar and a biologic with Enbrel. Those should be much harder to copy than Lipitor, that's for sure.

Ironically, it was a smaller acquisition of American Cyanamid that jump-started vaccines. Enbrel came through an Immunex partnership, before Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) snatched it up. Wonder what Pfizer could have gotten. Several smaller purchases instead of the $68 billion one?

No matter, it's done.
On to cost-saving-synergy lists that can't fail.
It's the pipeline I'm worried about;
R&D doesn't scale.

(Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

What are your expectations of the new Pfizer? Would you buy shares today (or tomorrow)? Let us know in the comments below.