LILLY: Prefiere..."sola".

March 19, 2011, BEIJING (Reuters)

Drugmaker Eli Lilly, which faces plunging sales due to competition and lapsing patents, will not merge with another peer to ride out any rough times ahead, chief executive John Lechleitr said on Saturday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Beijing, Lechleitr said he was confident the Indianapolis-based company can go it alone and invent sufficient new drugs to see it through.

Eli Lilly's resistance to any form of merger comes despite the fact that a series of patent lapses, stiff competition from generic drugmakers and regulatory setbacks are all set to hit its sales in coming months and years.

"We are still very much opposed to a large-scale combination,". Lechleitr told Reuters "We don't think size is necessarily supportive of innovation."

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