LONDON: British pharmaceutical group Glaxo­SmithKline announced two multi-billion-dollar deals on Monday — the sale of its Asian health drinks unit to Anglo-Dutch food giant Unilever and the purchase of US cancer specialist Tesaro.

GSK said it is buying Tesaro for $5.1 billion (4.5bn euros), while Unilever is spending 3.3bn euros to acquire the drinks unit, whose brands include iconic night-time hot drink Horlicks.

“The acquisition of Tesaro will strengthen our pharmaceuticals business by accelerating the build of our oncology pipeline and commercial footprint, along with providing access to new scientific capabilities,” GSK chief executive Emma Walmsley said in a statement.

But GSK’s share price tumbled on news of the deal to further its role in finding new cancer drugs, diving almost eight percent by the close to 14.98 on London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index, which closed up 1.18 per cent overall.

Unilever shares ended flat.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2018