Pfizer to Acquire Hospira

Feb. 5, 2015

Pfizer and Hospira announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Pfizer will acquire Hospira, the world’s leading provider of injectable drugs and infusion technologies and a global leader in biosimilars, for $90 a share in cash for a total enterprise value of approximately $17 billion.

The transaction will significantly enhance Pfizer’s Global Established Pharmaceutical (GEP) Business. The expanded portfolio of sterile injectable pharmaceuticals, composed of Hospira’s broad generic sterile injectables product line, including acute care and oncology injectables, with a number of differentiated presentations, as well as its biosimilars portfolio, combined with GEP’s branded sterile injectables, including anti-infectives, anti-inflammatories and cytotoxics, will create a leading global sterile injectables business.

Forbes columnist Matthew Herper points out that the Pfizer deal has restored investor's faith in the idea that Pfizer could eventually break itself into two or more separate companies to increase shareholder value.

Herper also notes that the Hospira buy will help Pfizer take steps towards having a generic business that stands on it's own. Hospira is a leader in making generic medicines for hospitals and has also made progress into making generic copycats of biotech protein drugs like Amgen’s Enbrel and Roche’s Herceptin.

Read the Pfizer press release