P&G exploring sale of pharma division

Procter & Gamble, a regular player in the drug partnering game, may be getting out of the pharma business. According to a report in the Financial Times, P&G is teamed with Goldman Sachs in the hunt for a buyer for its pharma division. And that could have a big impact on some biotech companies. P&G has opted to partner on new therapeutics rather than try to develop them independently.

Last December, P&G CEO AG Lafley (photo) told analysts that P&G had stopped investing in drug development work and was looking to divest some of its pharma assets. P&G's pharma division has sales of more than $2 billion a year. But P&G has been hampered by generic competition and the regulatory obstacles that can blunt attempts to introduce new products.

P&G's move comes at a time of unprecedented consolidation in the biopharma industry, with some of the world's biggest companies in the hunt for major acquisitions. Roche is attempting to buy out Genentech, Pfizer has a deal for Wyeth, Sanofi Aventis is lining up billions of dollars for acquisitions and even Merck says it is open to a major deal.

- read the story from the Financial Times

ALSO: GlaxoSmithKline CEO Andrew Witty didn't rule out buying the P&G division, but he did say that most of its business is in direct competition with GSK. Glaxo, which announced new cost cutting efforts today, is concentrating its buyout efforts on small and medium-sized companies. Report 

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