Globalisation has its pros and cons, although the takeover of drug maker Aventis by its European rival Sanofi highlights a particularly disturbing "con" - consolidation.
Pharmaceutical research is a highly important sector, for the simple reason that it is responsible for discovering and developing the cures and treatments that have become such a vital part of health systems in the modern world. As a result, successful drug companies have become highly profitable giants. In recent years the sector has seen a wave of consolidation, which has - like an endless round of musical chairs - seen the number of global players shrink.
The result is a distended hybrid of companies, with names patched together from their original state. Part of the company now known as GlaxoSmithKline, for example, began life as Joseph Nathan & Co in 1873 in Wellington, New Zealand, which first used the name Glaxo as a tradename for its powered milk.
Over the years Glaxo and its future partners grew, including Beecham Pills Ltd, Burroughs, Wellcome & Co and Smith, Kline & French, absorbing the likes of Macleans and Eno's Proprietaries - makers of the eponymous toothpaste and Lucozade respectively.
In 1989 the great contraction began, as Smith Kline Beckman merged with Beechams, then Glaxo merged with Wellcome, until 2000, when Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham joined to become the world's second-largest drug maker.
A similar game was underway elsewhere, continuing until Sunday's announcement of a new member of "big pharma": the £60bn Sanofi-Aventis, as the company will be known, the third largest behind Pfizer of the US and GlaxoSmithKline. But is bigger better?
The danger is that big pharma will spend more energy on creating new Viagras - Pfizer's moneyspinner - than in trying to cure unfashionable diseases such as malaria. The political clout these pharma giants wield also makes them likely to be harder to regulate. Future pharma mega-mergers will demand closer scrutiny from governments wanting to aid good health - and healthy competition.
