LONDON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Shareholders in British drugmakerGlaxoSmithKline have approved a planned deal withSwitzerland's Novartis, which will see the twopharmaceutical groups trade more than $20 billion of assets.
GSK said a meeting on Thursday had approved the transactionby an overwhelming majority and the deal was on track tocomplete in the first half of 2015.
The transaction, which includes GSK buying Novartis'vaccines business, Novartis purchasing GSK's cancer drugs, andthe two groups tying up in consumer healthcare, was firstunveiled in April.
U.S. antitrust regulators approved the deal in November,after Novartis agreed to divest its nicotine patch Habitrol,while European Union antitrust regulators will decide by Jan. 14whether to clear the arrangement.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Martinne Geller)
Glaxosmithkline (GSK)