P&G’s Teva Deal Gets OK from EU

P&G has a partner in the OTC drug business. European regulators cleared Procter & Gamble and Teva Pharmaceuticals to form a joint venture to sell over-the-counter medicines such as Vicks, Metamucil and Pepto-Bismol.


The new JV, PGT Healthcare, will have sales of $1.3 billion and will include Teva’s lines of over-the-counter cold and other medicines, as well as its pharmacy distribution network. The firms think the joint venture could grow sales to about $4 billion a year by the end of the decade.

In its ruling, the European Commission said the joint venture “would not raise competition concerns because it would not significantly alter the market structure,” according to a report in Investor’s Business Daily.

“The Commission found that in all these markets the combined market shares of the parties remain relatively low and P&G would continue to face sufficient competitive constraints exerted by other companies in the affected markets,” the commission noted in a release.