Merck KGaA Considers Sale of Consumer Health Business

Merck KGaA is considering options for its Consumer Health business, including a potential full or partial sale of the business as well as strategic partnerships, as part of its strategy to shift towards becoming a science and technology company, Merck KGaA announced on Sep. 5, 2017.

“We have continued to transform Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, over the last years into a leading science and technology company. Thereby we regularly review our portfolio in the context of our innovation driven strategy. Healthcare largely focuses on its Biopharma pipeline,” said Stefan Oschmann, Merck KGaA’s chairman of the executive board and CEO, in a company press release.

“Our Consumer Health portfolio has been continuously enhanced over the past years. We have maintained a solid position in attractive markets, and demonstrated a pattern of profitable growth. We expect increasing internal constraints to fund the business to reach the required scale. Fully anticipating this, we are preparing strategic options,” said Belén Garijo, member of Merck KGaA’s executive board and CEO Healthcare, in the release.

The Consumer Health business comprises a number of over-the-counter products and focuses on consumer-centric solutions driven by global megatrends. The business achieved 2016 net sales of EUR 860 million (US$1.03 billion), according to the company.

In a related move while executing its company strategy, Merck KGaA also recently completed the divestment of its biosimilars business to German specialty and generic pharmaceuticals company, Fresenius Kabi, in September 2017.

Source: Merck KGaA