Wellington, June 10 NZPA - Pharmaceutical multinational Pfizer Inc has applied to the Commerce Commission for clearance to take over rival drug company Wyeth Corp.

Pfizer sells human and animal health products through its local subsidiary, Pfizer New Zealand Ltd.

Wyeth sells human health products through its subsidiary, Wyeth (New Zealand) Ltd, and also supplies animal remedies through its subsidiary, Fort Dodge NZ Ltd.

In 2007 Fort Dodge had revenue of $17.9 million and gross profit of $7.2 million.

Pfizer Inc announced in January that it planned to buy New Jersey-based Wyeth in the United States for $US68 billion and make nearly 20,000 people there redundant.

It predicted cutting 15 percent of the merged 129,500 employees in the merged companies would save $SU4 billion in costs.

Wyeth employed 47,600 people in more than 17 countries, including New Zealand.

The managing director of Wyeth Australia and New Zealand, Erica Mann was recruited to lead Pfizer's nutritional health arm selling products such as infant formulas, and prenatal supplements.

The commission has not yet released details of the proposed New Zealand deal, but it followed a bid by another big drug-maker, Schering-Plough, to merge worldwide with Merck, which part-owns Merial, known in NZ as Merial-Ancare.

The two groups of companies play an important role in New Zealand agriculture -- their combined animal health sales here are estimated to be more than $200 million a year.

Pfizer NZ has annual revenue of about $US125m, including its animal health products.

The commission is expected to look closely at market dominance questions in remedies for sheep and cattle parasites, as well as drenches for deer and horses.

Internationally, Pfizer's takeover of Wyeth has coincided with its plans to ramp up its focus in treatments for Alzheimer's disease, inflammation, cancer, pain and psychosis, and continue to focus on vaccines and biotechnology.

Analysts have said that one big challenge is finding a replacement for the cholesterol-cutting Lipitor, the top-selling drug of all time, with sales of nearly $13 billion in 2006. That revenue will plummet when Lipitor's patent expires in 2011.

Wyeth's most promising drug when it was taken over was a new form of Prevnar, which combats meningitis and blood infections, with sales totalling $2.1b in 2008.