Mylan, a US pharmaceutical company, is close to acquiring Abbott's pharmaceutical assets for billions of dollars

Source: New York (Reuters) - Myla, a US non patent pharmaceutical company, is in deep talks with Abbott Laboratories to acquire the latter's multi billion dollar pharmaceutical assets, according to a person familiar with the matter At present, the transaction has entered the final stage of discussion In the deal, mylan will spend billions of dollars to acquire a large part of Abbott's mature European Pharmaceutical assets, sources said As the message has not been made public, the source requested anonymity Some claim that the acquisition of overseas assets will enable mylan to transfer tax revenue overseas, which is commonly used by pharmaceutical companies to reduce tax burden and make better use of the company's overseas funds Mylan's specific offer is not known, but people familiar with the matter told Reuters that Abbott plans to sell a mature drug asset that could be worth more than $5 billion The deal could be announced as early as next week, but people familiar with the matter warned that the talks were continuing or could not be closed Abbott's mature pharmaceutical division, headquartered in Basel, had sales of about $5 billion in 2013, half of which came from emerging markets and the rest from other international markets A representative of mylan declined to comment and Abbott did not respond to a request for comment Mylan has been hoping to achieve tax reversals through a deal, in part because the company is at a disadvantage compared to its foreign peers and other U.S non patent drugmakers who have changed their places of registration.