Pfizer expects the deal, which requires regulatory and shareholder approvals, to close later this year, immediately boosting earnings and enabling the company to cut annual costs by $800 million over the next three years. Chief Executive Officer Ian Read said the Hospira deal would not delay any breakup of Pfizer, an action the company has said it could take by 2017 if an accounting analysis determines it makes sense. BIOSIMILAR ATTRACTION Drugmakers are racing to develop biosimilars, which typically cost 20 percent to 30 percent less than the original, as big-ticket patents on biotech drugs expire and cash-strapped healthcare systems cut costs. Biosimilars are expected to account for about one-quarter of the $100 billion in sales from off-patent biological drugs by the end of the decade, according to a study compiled by Thomson Reuters BioWorld. There are no approved biosimilars in the United States yet.