The planned all-equity arrangement to combine the consumer health businesses of GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Pfizer Inc. will create greater visibility around the capital structure for GSK's pharma and vaccines business and ultimately, by de-levering – or reducing the debt ratio of – that business, free up resources to invest in its R&D pipeline. So said GSK's management on an investor call to outline the details of the transaction, which will see the GSK and Pfizer consumer businesses coming together in a joint venture with combined sales of £9.8bn.
Pfizer Consumer Combo Deal Frees Capital For GSK Pharma Investment
Separating out its consumer business in a joint venture with Pfizer will open up investment possibilities for GlaxoSmithKline's pharma and vaccine businesses.

More from Deals
AstraZeneca remains committed to investing in R&D and alliances in China, where Susan Galbraith, the UK major’s head of oncology R&D, sees innovation eventually reaching parity with the US and Europe.
The latest in a long line of restructuring measures will see Sumitomo Pharma making a stepped sale of its pharma operations in Asia to major Japanese trading house Marubeni.
Plus deals involving GV20/Mitsubishi Tanabe, Kaken/Alumis, AstraZeneca/Alteogen and deal terminations involving Clover/Gavi Alliance and Rhythm/RareStone.
The obesity market leader has unveiled its second deal in days, paying $75m upfront for a potential first-in-class ACSL5 inhibitor, while the deal also provides some respite for Lexicon.
More from Business
The German firm’s chairman, Hubertus von Baumbach, is adopting a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to the threat of pharma tariffs.
Trump announced a 26% reciprocal tariff on India but a country-agnostic exemption of pharmaceuticals implies that the interests of Indian firms and the US consumer are protected for now. What is Indian pharma’s business exposure and what is domestic industry saying?
Industry lobbied for pharmaceuticals to be exempt from Trump’s sweeping US tariffs and the effort appears to have paid off. J&J, Lilly and Merck & Co. even got shout outs.