Merck may sell consumer health biz, including India unit

Merck KgaA is considering selling its global consumer health business, including that of its publicly traded Indian unit Merck Ltd. The German drug maker is preparing for “strategic options” for its consumer health business globally, including a potential full or partial sale of business, the company’s Indian unit told the stock exchanges in a filing on Tuesday.

“Our consumer health portfolio has been continuously enhanced over the past years. We have maintained a solid position in attractive markets, and demonstrated a pattern of profitable growth. We expect increasing internal constraints to fund the business to reach the required scale. Fully anticipating this, we are preparing strategic options,” Belén Garijo, member of the executive board of Merck KGaA and chief executive of its healthcare business, said in a statement.

The “possible proceeds” from a potential transaction would be used to deliver on the company’s overall financial targets, the company said.

“We have continued to transform Merck over the past years into a leading science and technology company. Thereby we regularly review our portfolio in the context of our innovationdriven strategy. Healthcare largely focuses on its biopharma pipeline,” said Stefan Oschmann, chief executive of Merck KGaA.

The company said that the “strategic initiative” would involve the company’s consumer health business in India as well. “The implementation of potential measures and their specific design are subject to further analysis and decision making by competent bodies,” stated the company.