Top > Business > 2007 > February > 2007-02-03

Sanofi-Aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb Merger Near

The pharmaceutical companies, Sanofi-Aventis SA and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. may announce a merger in the near future, the French financial paper La Lettre de l`Expansion, reported Monday. The paper claims the two companies a preliminary merger agreement last week. The deal, if in fact, finalized, will create the world`s largest pharmaceutical corporation in the World.

The brokerage company Merrill Lynch said that there has been speculation regarding a merger between the two companies, in recent months, brought on by the fact that the two companies are already marketing Plavix, often used in the treatment of coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, and cerebrovascular disease, and Avapro, for the treatment of hypertension ("High Blood Pressure"), in the United States. Other indications that Bristol-Myers Squibb is ready to be sold are the fact that the company has yet to be appointed a chief executive officer (CEO) since Peter Dolan`s left the company, September 12, 2006, after a federal monitor urged for Dolan to be removed due to a mishandled attempt to settle a patent dispute over the drug Plavix. As well as the less than successful launches of drugs Orencia, a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, and Sprycel, a drug for leukaemia.

Sanofi-Aventis, headquartered in Paris, France, is one of the 3 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, along with Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. Sanofi-Aventis engages in the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical products for sale principally in the prescription market, but they also develop over-the-counter medication. Bristol-Myers Squibb was formed by a 1989 merger between pharmaceutical companies Bristol-Myers Company, founded in 1887 by William McLaren Bristol and John Ripley Myers in Clinton, and the Squibb Corporation.