Pfizer may combine off-patent business with Mylan

Pfizer is on the verge of combining its off-patent drug business with generics behemoth Mylan, the Wall Street Journal reports. The companies would spin out a third entity, which would focus exclusively on lower-priced drugs — with the potential to revive flagging sales of off-patent Pfizer drugs like Lipitor and Viagra.

It looks to be a stock deal, where Mylan shareholders would own around 40% of the newly formed business. Pfizer would earn about $12 billion in the deal, according to the Journal. 

This would mean goodbye for Mylan chief executive Heather Bresch, who famously received a litany of flack for her company's pricing of the EpiPen. Michael Goettler, head of Pfizer's off-patent arm, would lead up the new enterprise, and Mylan chairman Robert Coury would be its executive chairman.