NEW YORK, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The boards of pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Allergan have agreed to a $150 billion merger to form the world's largest drug manufacturer.
Sources close to the companies said the smaller, Ireland-based Allergan PLC is purchasing New York-based Pfizer, Inc. The deal was ratified Sunday, with terms indicating 11.3 Pfizer shares would be traded for every Allergan share, a reverse merger called an inversion.
Taking the U.S. company overseas is expected to substantially lower the new company's tax rate, and is by far the largest business merger of 2015.
The merger will create a company with combined revenue of more $60 billion and the industry's largest research and development division.
Among its products are Pfizer's Viagra and Prevnar pneumonia vaccine, and Allergan's cosmetic treatment Botox. The new company will have a range of drugs and vaccines to deal with cancer, Alzheimer's disease, rheumatoid arthritis and other illnesses.
Although Pfizer is the larger company, with $50 billion in revenue compared to Allergan's $13 billion, Allergan is the faster-growing company, largely through sales of Botox and other aesthetic-medicine products.
The deal must undergo regulatory scrutiny by a number of countries, and comes days after the U.S. Treasury Department announced new rules aimed at limiting inversion deals. Analysts believe the new rules will not stop the Pfizer-Allergan deal.
