Hospira Buyout Is a Shot in the Arm for Pfizer’s Biosimilars

Friday, February 13, 2015

US pharma giant Pfizer aims to bolster its sterile injectable capabilities and gain access to biosimilars by buying injectables specialist Hospira. Pfizer anticipates that the $17 billion (£11 billion) deal will result in $800 million in savings by 2018.

Pfizer said in a statement that its acquisition of Hospira will create ‘a leading global sterile injectables business.’ The company estimates that the global market values for generic sterile injectables and biosimilars – copycat versions of biological drugs – will be $70 billion and $20 billion, respectively, in 2020.

Hospira’s injectable products are focused on acute care and oncology, and are expected to complement Pfizer’s branded sterile injectables, which are predominantly anti-infectives, anti-inflammatories, and cytotoxics.

Further, Pfizer could expand the reach of Hospira’s large portfolio of generic products, which are currently distributed primarily in the US, to Europe and key emerging markets.

Bob Kirby, a director at Fitch Ratings in Illinois, US, who analyses the healthcare and corporate sector, says the deal makes sense from the perspective of Pfizer’s business in pharmaceuticals that are already established on the market.

‘It builds out some areas of the business, gives it a little more scale, and certainly a greater presence in biosimilars,’ he tells Chemistry World. ‘But on the innovative side, I don’t think it has done anything for the portfolio of new molecular entities,’ Kirby adds.

Source: Chemistry World (link opens in a new window)

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