Following Pfizer’s acquisition of Allergan for US$160 billion, analysts are predicting the spin-off of the healthcare giant’s consumer business and Reckitt Benckiser has been identified as the most likely buyer.

“Our conviction that Consumer Healthcare will eventually be disposed has only increased,” commented Exane BNP Paribas Analysts Jeff Stent, Heidi Vesterinen and Mikheil Omanadze. “Consumer Healthcare would appear to have little strategic linkage with the combined Innovative business. To add weight to this view, we note that Consumer Healthcare did not feature explicitly in either the deal presentation or prepared remarks.”

Speculators are predicting the sale of the Consumer Healthcare business in 2018, once Pfizer has bedded in Allergan. Pfizer’s Consumer Healthcare portfolio includes lip care brand ChapStick, popular painkiller Advill, while Reckitt Benckiser owns Nurofen and Clearasil, among others.