Pfizer / GlaxoSmithKline Combined Venture (BIG)

PHARMA Take Two Drugmakers and Call Us in the Morning Drugmakers Pfizer (-1.01%) and GlaxoSmithKline   are combining their consumer health care businesses and eventually spinning off the new joint venture—creating the world's biggest over-the-counter medicine supplier in the process. Yep, a very big deal. The new company (which will be listed on a UK stock exchange and be called GSK Consumer Healthcare) will effectively become the sponsor of every CVS run you ever make. It'll include brands from Advil to Sensodyne to Tums. Glaxo will have a 68% controlling stake in the new unit, with Pfizer taking the rest. Any guesses for the combined sales of both Pfizer's and Glaxo's consumer businesses last year? $12.7 billion. Pfizer spent the better part of the year trying (unsuccessfully) to sell its consumer unit, but few expected a Glaxo deal. Zoom out: Now, both parties will have more room to focus on R&D for higher-margin (and often higher-risk) prescription drug projects. With the boom-and-bust nature of developing the next big prescription drug, the cash influx from consumer products will be a welcome cushion.