Pfizer to reportedly sign a deal to buy Allergan for $150 billion; to be drug industry's biggest deal

MUMBAI: US drug giant Pfizer is reportedly moving closer to sign a deal to buy Botox maker Allergan for $150 billion, or about Rs 9,88,000 crore, in what would be the biggest transaction in drug industry so far.

The deal, if concluded, will eclipse Pfizer’s $90-billion buyout of Warner Lambert in 2000.

It would mark a peaking point for Irish firm Allergan’s history of tens of acquisitions and selloffs and provide the $45-billion Pfizer the tax benefits of an Irish domicile.

Experts noted that the moves of the US Treasury department to clamp down on inversion deals are unlikely to scuttle the deal currently under negotiations between the two sides in what appears to be friendly settings.

Last year, Allergan had fended off a hostile and determined acquisition bid from Canadian drug maker Valeant, before getting acquired by Actavis in a $70.5 billion transaction. Pfizer has been on the prowl for the last two years after failing in its $118 billion attempt to buy Anglo-Swedish drug maker AstraZeneca.

Industry experts see Allergan as a company addicted to doing deals. Led by CEO Brent Saunders, who is seen as an aggressively transformation expert, Allergan has morphed from being an ophthalmic-focused drug firm to a serious multiproduct branded industry heavyweight through a series of deals over the past three years.