US pharmaceutical companies Upjohn (a division of Pfizer) and Mylan have merged to form a company called Viatris, nearly 16 months after the move was first announced.

The new company will immediately become a major player in the generics market, with estimated global sales of over $19 billion, compared to $127billion for current market leader, Teva.

Viatris’ product portfolio includes legacy Pfizer products such as Viagra and Lipitor, as well as Mylan’s Epipen.

The merger received EU approval in April 2020, although the deal was conditional on Mylan divesting certain generic medicines sold by Mylan in 20 European countries to meet competition concerns.

Viatris is headquartered in the US, and has global centres in Pittsburgh, Shanghai, and Hyderabad, India. Its portfolio comprises more than 1,400 approved molecules across a wide range of therapeutic areas that it will sell across 165 countries and territories.

The company is immediately embarking on a “significant global restructuring programme in order to achieve synergies of $1 billion and ensure the new company is optimally structured and efficiently resourced”.