NOVARTIS has announced it will sell its stake in its consumer healthcare joint venture to GSK for US$13.0 billion in cash, to focus on "strategic priorities".
The interesting development follows last Friday's announcement that GSK had exited the race to purchase Pfizer's OTC business (PD 26 Mar), a move some analysts had attributed in part to the potential further dilution of GSK OTC ownership given Novartis' stake in Pfizer's consumer division.
Novartis ceo Vas Narasimhan said, "While our consumer healthcare joint venture with GSK is progressing well, the time is right for Novartis to divest a non-core asset at an attractive price."
The joint venture was formed in 2015 as part of Novartis' portfolio transformation, which included the combination of the Novartis OTC business with the GSK consumer healthcare business.
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