PFIZER announced on Tuesday it was considering the sale or spin-off of its consumer healthcare business, according to Reuters.
The move would throw a $15b lip balm operation onto the market just as Germany's Merck KGaA is also looking to divest its non-prescription products, including brands such as its Seven Seas vitamins, worth around $4.5b.
Pfizer's consumer business, whose brands include painkiller Advil and lip balm Chapstick, had revenue of about $3.4 billion in 2016, with analysts citing possible suitors including Nestle, Reckitt Benckiser, Procter & Gamble, GSK, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott.
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