GSK will complete Novartis three-way deal by end of next week

UK drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline says it has made "good progress" on regulatory and legal issues towards completion of its deal with Swiss rival Novartis.GSK said it expected to complete the deal next week, just under a year after it was first announced, with the two pharmaceuticals groups trading over £12.7bn of assets.The FTSE 100 company said "following good progress on obtaining clearances and approvals to enable completion of its three-part transaction with Novartis, it expects to complete the transaction in the week commencing 2 March".The three parts of the deal will see GSK buy Novartis' vaccines business, excluding influenza vaccines, while Novartis will purchase GSK's cancer drugs and the two groups will merge their consumer healthcare businesses into joint venture.