Glaxo, Colgate, and Novartis seen bidding on Pfizer products

Glaxo, Colgate, and Novartis seen bidding on Pfizer products

Glaxo, Colgate, and Novartis seen bidding on Pfizer products

NEW YORK - British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Colgate-Palmolive Co. are among companies expected to submit offers for Pfizer Inc’s array of consumer products in first-round bidding on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal said.

New York-based Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, is hoping to fetch about $14 billion for the products, the report said, citing people familiar with the situation.

The products include Bengay pain-relieving cream, Sudafed cold tablets and Listerine mouthwash.

Pfizer, which has steadily sold off parts of its operations to focus on its core drug business, acquired many of the consumer brands in its 2000 merger with rival U.S. drugmaker Warner-Lambert Co.

Pfizer said in February it aimed to sell or spin off its consumer products division, which had sales of $3.88 billion last year.

There was widespread speculation soon after the announcement that bidders could include Glaxo, which has a line of consumer products, and U.S.-based Colgate, which could market Listerine alongside its best-selling line of toothpastes.

Colgate Chief Operating Officer Ian Cook told an investors’ conference earlier this month that Listerine was strategically right and that Colgate would look at buying the brand “very, very aggressively.”

Glaxo Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Garnier said on Feb. 8 he would look at the Pfizer consumer healthcare business but there was no guarantee of a bid. A Glaxo spokesman declined to comment any further on Wednesday.

Colgate had no immediate comment on the newspaper report.

Industry analysts said other potential bidders could include Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG and Britain’s Reckitt Benckiser Plc , which was reported earlier this month to be lining up financing for a bid.