Nestlé poised to buy Mead Johnson’s formula business?

 

The U.S. financial website bloomberg.com is reporting that major
international formula manufacturer Mead Johnson Nutritionals is set to be
sold off by its parent company, Bristol-Myers Squibb. Pharmaceutical company
Bristol-Myers is cutting jobs, closing plants, and selling off assets in
order to streamline its operations in preparation for a loss of about $3
billion in profits by 2012, when its blood-thinning drug Plavix will face
competition from a generic drug of the same properties.

 

The potential buyer for Mead Johnson’s operations, which bloomberg.com
estimates are worth $10 billion, appears to be none other than Swiss formula
giant Nestlé. While the buyout is only in its tentative stages, and would
not theoretically take place for some time, should the takeover occur it
would be give Nestlé an unprecedented share of the world’s infant formula
market.

 

Nestlé already owns more of the formula business than any other company (28%
of global market share), but Mead Johnson—along with Abbott Ross—forms its
major competition throughout the globe. Mead Johnson is also leading Nestlé
in certain markets, including North America where affluent parents are more
able to afford the company’s expensive “premium” formula brands. Acquiring
Mead Johnson would give the Swiss company a major foothold in these regions.

 

Through its owner Bristol-Myers, Mead Johnson also has strong links to
health care systems all over the world. This would make the acquisition very
appealing because health care systems are major avenues for formula
promotion and Nestlé has long desired greater penetration into medical
infrastructures.

 

Nestlé also recently acquired Gerber, which owns the the vast majority of
the complementary food market in the United States. Should it buy out Mead
Johnson, the corporation will have a very tight grip on North America and
move that much closer to total global dominance of the formula industry.

 

This is disheartening news, as documented evidence continues to show that
Nestlé is consistently the world’s leading violator of the International
Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes. That ever-increasing growth
goes hand-in-hand with unethical marketing practices sets a horrible
standard for the rest of the infant formula industry, and only encourages
marketing malpractice. As is so often the case, it appears that Nestlé’s
gain will come at the expense of the health of the world’s infants.

 

For the Bloomberg report on the potential sale visit
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive
<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=azRyg5VOD3Pg>
&sid=azRyg5VOD3Pg

 

Cindy Curtis RNC IBCLC CCE

http://www.breastfeedingonline.com

mailto:[log in to unmask]

 


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