Eli Lilly's
Eli Lilly is purchasing Johnson & Johnson's European-based animal-health business. The deal will bring about 50 animal-health products to Eli Lilly's Elanco unit.
There wasn't a manufacturing plant as part of the deal and terms weren't disclosed, so it's likely a minor trade for the two companies with multibillion dollars' worth of sales. It's safe to say the deal by itself isn't going to do much to make up for the blockbuster drugs Lilly is about to lose.
But every little bit helps. Lilly picked up a suite of European animal-health products and a manufacturing plant to produce them from Pfizer
And Eli Lilly can use all the beefing up it can get. The animal-health division is in a stall next to some tough competition as Merck
Lilly might get a chance to grab a few more products when Merial and Intervet come together. The closing of the deal seems to be taking longer than expected, which I'm guessing is because the companies are in negotiations with antitrust regulators to figure out exactly what products they'll need to divest of. That's how it got the products from Pfizer last year.
We might have to start calling Eli Lilly a vulture – figuratively, of course.
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