Pfizer-Pharmacia merger to be completed by the end of first quarter

Pfizer's Chief Executive Officer Henry McKinnell and European Union antitrust chief Mario Monti said on January 24 that they are making on getting Pifzer's $56 billion purchase of rival drugmaker Pharmacia Corp. approved.

Despite Pfizer's expectation that the deal would be completed at the end of last year, the European Commission interrupted its probe on November 20 last year in the middle...