Pfizer will acquire Wyeth in an agreement that includes $68 billion in cash and shares.

Recently, Pfizer cut 1,000 jobs and is planning to eliminate another 2,500 in the first quarter of this year.

The merger would allow significant cost savings on back office for both companies' administrations, and research costs as the world's once blockbuster drug market slides into a deep and perhaps protracted recession. Both Wyeth and Pfizer face a tough regulatory environment and are heading toward a deadline where a number of their treatments are going to lose their exclusive patents -- meaning that generic companies can manufacture and market their drugs without paying royalties.

A merger would mean the combined firm would have total sales of approximately $75 billion.

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