Blackstone and Carlyle to place a joint bid to take over Sandoz

Private equity firms, Blackstone Inc and Carlyle Group Inc are partnering up to place a joint bid to take over the generics unit of Swedish pharmaceutical company Novartis AG, Sandoz.

The report says that if the talks are successful it would be one of the biggest ever buyout deals. Blackstone and Carlyle have been lining out the advantages of placing a joint bid for the Sandoz business. The business is valued nearly at $25 billion.

The sources also report that Advent International, Hellman & Friedman, and KKR & Co can also place separate bids for the business. Novartis has said that the company will need to invest in the launch of a raft of ‘biosimilar’ drugs that are much cheaper versions of complex biotech drugs that have lost patent protection.