Pfizer vows to ringfence key drugs in takeover deal

Pfizer said it would ringfence the development of important drugs if it acquired AstraZeneca — rejecting a charge from the British firm that a takeover would disrupt important research and put lives at risk.

“As we put these companies together, we will continue with our pipeline, AZ will continue with theirs,” Pfizer’s CEO Ian Read told MPs on a second day of questioning about what could be the biggest ever UK corporate deal.

He said: “There is absolutely no truth to any comment that some products of critical nature would be delayed getting to patients, if anything we would accelerate that to patients.”