Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis is selling its stake in a consumer health care joint venture with GlaxoSmithKline to the British company for $13 billion. The joint venture was formed in 2015 and Novartis holds a 36.5-percent stake. GSK said the original joint venture agreement gave Novartis the right to require GSK to buy all or part of its stake at any point between March 2 this year and 2035. "The new agreement to buy out Novartis' stake removes this uncertainty and improves the group's ability to plan allocation of capital to its other priorities," GSK said. The GSK consumer health care business had sales of 7.8 billion pounds ($11.1 billion) last year.

Source: ABC News March 27, 2018 06:35 UTC