Glaxo, Colgate, Bid on Pfizer Products

GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Colgate-Palmolive Co. are among companies expected to submit offers for Pfizer Inc’s array of consumer products in first-round bidding, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Pfizer, New York, NY, hopes to gain about $14 billion for the products, representatives noted. The products include Bengay pain-reliever cream, Sudafed cold tablets and Listerine mouthwash. Pfizer acquired many of its consumer brands in 2000 from its merger with Warner-Lambert Co.

Last month, Pfizer said that it was planning to sell or spin off its consumer products division, which had sales of $3.88 billion last year. There was speculation that bidders could include Glaxo or U.S.-based Colgate.

In a conference, Colgate chief operating officer Ian Cook said that Listerine was strategically right and that Colgate would look at buying the brand “very, very aggressively.” Jean-Pierre Garnier, Glaxo chief executive, said he would consider the Pfizer consumer healthcare business but there was no guarantee of a bid.

Industry analysts said other potential bidders could include Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG and Britain’s Reckitt Benckiser Plc.