Eli Lilly Plans to Buy Animal Health Business

According to the Associated Press, Eli Lilly and Co. plans to buy the animal health business of Janssen Pharmaceutical NV in a deal that would give Lilly''s Elanco division about 50 marketed animal health products. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson company, is based in Belgium and has a mostly European focused animal health business that targets diseases in pets and livestock, specializing in swine and poultry. Lilly, based in Indianapolis, said no manufacturing facilities would be acquired. Lilly has targeted the animal health market as a key growth area over the next several years, as the drugmaker deals with a wave of patent expirations that will expose some of its top-selling drugs to generic competition. Lilly also has touted its pipeline of potential drugs under development and sales in emerging markets and Japan as other key growth outlets. The company loses U.S. patent protection for its top selling drug, the antipsychotic Zyprexa, later this year. Zyprexa sales topped $5 billion last year.