US drug maker Pfizer has confirmed that it is to buy rival Wyeth for $68 billion, in the largest pharmaceutical deal in nearly a decade.
Wyeth employs more than 3,000 people at five locations in Ireland, while Pfizer employs more than 2,000 people here, most of them in Cork.
Paul Duffy, Pfizer's head of manufacturing in Ireland, told RTÉ radio it was too early to say what his company's takeover of Wyeth would mean for Irish jobs. Mr Duffy was today named the new president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland.
The deal would be the largest takeover in the pharmaceutical sector since Pfizer acquired Warner-Lambert Co. for $93.4 billion in 2000.
Under the terms of the deal, each share in Wyeth will be converted into a shareholder right to receive $33 in cash and 0.985 of a share in Pfizer.
Pfizer says the boards of both companies have approved the deal, which it says will yield cost savings of about $4 billion in the first three years after the takeover.
