Bloomberg - Business Week | January 12, 2012
By Drew Armstrong
Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. Chief Executive Officer Paul Bisaro said the company is interested in buying either a generic or brand-name drugmaker.
“Our appetite for a larger transaction, it’s there,” Bisaro said today at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.
Watson, the maker of the authorized copy of Pfizer Inc.’s cholesterol pill Lipitor, is looking to expand its international reach as well as the company’s portfolio of brand-name drugs. Acquisitions and partnerships, including one with biotechnology drugmaker Amgen Inc., have helped the diversification efforts. Watson and Israel’s Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. are moving away from being solely copycat-drug makers, said Michael Faerm, an analyst with Credit Suisse Group AG.