Major mergers in the biopharmaceutical industry are driven by a variety of factors, but the major one tends to be the acquisition of new assets to fuel growth of the acquiring company’s pipeline. I was personally involved in such processes a few times during my Pfizer tenure. When the possibility of a Warner-Lambert merger with American Home Products arose back in 1999, Pfizer stepped in and executed a hostile takeover with the express purpose of having sole access to what was becoming the biggest-selling drug of all time–Lipitor
