German pharmaceutical giant Merck KGaA announced Sunday that it had signed an agreement to sell its generic drugs division to the US group Mylan Laboratories for 4.9 billion euros (6.6 billion dollars).
"The sale to Mylan offers great opportunities for long-term growth and a brilliant future for employees in our generics divisions," said Merck's chief executive Karl-Ludwig Kley in a company statement. "This transaction will allow Merck to concentrate on growing its chemical and pharmaceutical sectors," he added.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of the year. With 1.8 billion euros in sales in 2006, the market for Merck's generic drugs represented about one third of the group's revenues. The US generic drug maker Mylan was one of four finalists bidding for the Merck division.
Merck wanted to sell its generics division to help finance the 10.2-billion-euro purchase of the Swiss biotechnology laboratory Serono in September last year.
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