Abbott Laboratories seeks to sell mature drugs worth more than $5 bn: report

Abbott Laboratories is evaluating the sale of a large portion of its mature drugs, which could fetch the US pharmaceutical and health care products company more than $5 billion.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported over the weekend that the Illinois-based company is working with Morgan Stanley to find a buyer for the off-patent, or established products, which generates annual revenues of around $2 billion.

Abbott is joining its larger competitors who are seeking to sell their older products in an effort to focus on high-growth areas, the report said.

Merck & Co is also in the process of selling its consumer healthcare business, which may fetch between $10 billion to $14 billion, while French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi SA is also keen of divesting  some of its mature products worth around $7 billion to $8 billion.

Germany's Bayer AG is close to finalising a deal to buy Merck & Co's consumer healthcare unit (See: Bayer offers to swap cash and animal health unit for Merck's consumer healthcare), while Reckitt Benckiser, one of the two final bidders in the auction, has dropped out of the race, according to several media reports.