Dive Brief:
- In mid-November, GlaxoSmithKline announced plans to sell its mature portfolio of drugs, including Paxil, Imitrex, Zantac, and Zofran.
- Bidders were said to include Apollo Management, KKR, Lundbeck, and Norgin.
- On Thursday, GSK announced that the deal was off because none of the bids was sufficient to "maximize shareholder value."
Dive Insight:
GSK's goal in putting its portfolio of older drugs on the market was to enhance long-term growth potential and reduce complexity—creating a more focused portfolio as a result.
A potential deal was estimated to be in the $3 billion range. Evidently, Glaxo wasn't seeing the kind of offers that it wanted. And given the rather tumultuous year that the company has had to grind through, including a record fine and falling Advair sales which are leading to a slate of massive job cuts in the U.S., GSK is clearly looking to get every penny that it can.