Hong Kong — Pfizer is reviewing options including a sale of its women’s health portfolio as the US pharmaceutical giant seeks to focus on developing treatments with higher growth potential, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The drug maker is working with financial advisers to gauge the interest of potential buyers, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations were private. A sale of the division, which has annual sales of roughly $1.2bn, could fetch about $2bn and draw bids from both private equity firms and rival pharmaceutical companies, they said.
A spokesperson for Pfizer said the drug maker declined to comment on speculation. No final decision had been reached and the company may yet decide to retain the assets, which include menopause treatments such as Premarin, Prempro and Premphase, the people said.
A divestment of the business would mean that Pfizer, which narrowed its full-year forecast in October amid manufacturing challenges within the business that makes its older medicines, is joining Allergan and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries in selling or winding down women’s health lines, and shifting resources to other parts of their portfolios.
Allergan CEO Brent Saunders, who has been seeking to sell the firm’s women’s health and antibiotics divisions, said earlier this week that the offers so far had been below what the assets are worth.
In 2017, Teva opted to sell its women’s health division in separate transactions for about $2.5bn as it raced to pay down debt.
With Cynthia Koons
Bloomberg
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