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- <text id=89TT1058>
- <title>
- Apr. 24, 1989: Business Notes:Pharmaceuticals
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Apr. 24, 1989 The Rat Race
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 54
- Business Notes
- PHARMACEUTICALS
- Prescription For a Merger
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Tums, meet Tagamet. The race to create global pharmaceutical
- companies inspired a transatlantic merger last week. London's
- Beecham Group, maker of Tums antacid, and Philadelphia's
- SmithKline Beckman, developer of the anti-ulcer drug Tagamet,
- said they will form a company with more than $6.7 billion in
- total sales. The merged corporation, to be renamed SmithKline
- Beecham, will rank No. 2 in the pharmaceutical world to New
- Jersey-based Merck.
- </p>
- <p> The move comes none too soon for SmithKline, which has
- suffered from declining Tagamet sales as the once revolutionary
- drug faces increased competition. Industry experts see the two
- companies as a good match. Beecham, which also makes Brylcreem,
- has built strong European markets, while SmithKline prevails in
- North America and Japan.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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