Wellcome Rejects Glaxo But Looks Elsewhere

Wellcome is actively looking for "a better offer for shareholders and a better outcome for the business" than the one Glaxo has made (Marketletter January 30), was Wellcome's response after some days of silence to the move by Glaxo to acquire the company, with a bid of L8.9 billion ($13.9 billion).

Wellcome says that it is seeking a higher value, and that Glaxo's offer fails to recognize its strengths, which it lists as being: pre-eminence in rapidly growing antiviral markets; an outstanding record of innovation and promising pipelines in antivirals, central nervous system, and anticancer drugs; excellent record of revenue and earnings growth; and strong market position, especially in the USA and Europe.

John Robb, chairman and chief executive of Wellcome, suggests that the company's financial results for 1994 (see page 4), which were unpublished at the time of his comment, will show it in a better light than that on which Glaxo is basing its offer.