Switzerland's Novartis AG has agreed to sell its nicotine patch, Habitrol, in order to win U.S. antitrust approval for a consumer healthcare joint venture with Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.The deal is part of a three-way transaction unveiled in April, which includes GSK buying Novartis' vaccines business, Novartis purchasing GSK's cancer drugs, and the two groups tying up in consumer healthcare.Britain's GSK has a shareholder meeting on Dec. 18 to consider the proposed deal, in which more than $20 billion in assets will change hands.The consumer healthcare portion of the deal approved on a Wednesday would create a joint venture to market products like toothpaste, cold remedies, and skin care aids. GSK will own roughly two-thirds of the joint venture and Novartis will own about one-third, the FTC said in a court filing.
Novartis AG provides healthcare solutions. The Company is a multinational group of companies specializing in the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of a range of healthcare products led by pharmaceuticals. Shares of NVS traded higher by 0.62% or $0.59/share to $95.63. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $76.36 and as high as $96.02. On average, 1384280 shares of NVS exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 497018.
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