Pfizer Megadeal Still in Sight After Astra: Real M&A

After being rejected by AstraZeneca Plc, Pfizer Inc. still has a chance to clinch the drug industry’s biggest deal.

While Pfizer shelved plans in May to buy the U.K. company in a record-setting transaction, its plan B could be an even larger target, $118 billion GlaxoSmithKline Plc, according to Berenberg Bank. A takeover of London-based Glaxo, which has gotten about 8 percent cheaper in the past two weeks, would give Pfizer a lung-drug business and more vaccines. Another possibility, Irish-domiciled Actavis Plc at $57 billion, would offer a pipeline of new products and generic medicines. Either one may allow the New York-based company to move its headquarters abroad and lower its tax rate.