In February, Pfizer announced it was set to buy drugmaker Hospira for $17bn, and the proposal took one step closer to completion last week when Hospira shareholders voted in for the merger agreement.
99.4% of the vote favoured the acquisition, and the firms look set to complete the deal in the second half of 2015.
Hospira saw strong growth in its first quarter, reporting net sales and income up around 12% on the same period last year of $1.2bn and $76m, respectively.
While discussing his own firm’s Q1 results, Pfizer’s President of Established Pharma John Young said he was “very pleased to see the continued positive strong momentum for the Hospira business”
He continued (transcript here): “Overall, the transaction certainly represents an immediate incremental source of revenue growth with products that can be expanded into additional markets, given Pfizer’s global reach.
“And I think the excitement that I think we’ve seen in the financial community really is around the transaction bringing together two excellent businesses that will deliver not only near-term profitable revenue growth but also provide a platform for future growth that can be enhanced through Pfizer’s global reach and infrastructure. So, we remain very positive about the combination of the two businesses.”
Once completed, the deal is set to bolster Pfizer's pipelines, especially in sterile injectables and biosimilars which the firm has said are both attractive and growing market segments.