One of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies is set to get even larger. Pfizer . announced on 26 January that it intends to acquire Wyeth, a company with a strong reputation in biologics and vaccines. The combined company - united under the name Pfizer - would be a behemoth, with nearly 130,000 employees and more than US$71 billion in revenue. Pfizer will pay about $68 billion for Wyeth, based in Madison, New Jersey, an unusually large deal given the current financial crisis. The acquisition, expected to close late this year, will draw on Pfizer's cash and stock resources, along with a loan of $22.5 billion, backed by a syndicate of five banks, some of which recently received bailout funds from the US government. The deal comes as Pfizer nears the expiry dates of its patents on several key drugs, including atorvastatin (Lipitor), a cholesterol medication that is the best-selling drug in the world.
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