Pfizer's big deal in limbo as it has yet to shed consumer-health unit

New York

PFIZER Inc's move to offload its consumer-health division could bring in billions of dollars and help the drugmaker streamline operations. Yet the company-changing deal investors have been hoping for may be still to come.

The US drug giant, which abandoned a plan to split in two last year, has tried - and failed - to orchestrate hundred-billion-dollar-plus mergers that would have allowed it to move its address overseas to secure a lower tax rate. Now, with tax reform being debated in Congress, Pfizer could consider another large deal to bolster its development pipeline.